My buddy built a PC for me in 2014. I’ve gotten a lot of use out of it, but for the last few years I’ve just been using it solely as a media server. Which it works fine for. But we are running out of space in our house and that thing is huge and loud, so I want to replace it with a Lenovo mini PC to work as my media server and use my external 5 TB hard drive for storage (I have a couple TBs just in pictures and stuff).

However, I realized I don’t really know how to dispose of this old PC. I really don’t want to generate a bunch of e-waste. I’d be happy to give it away but I can’t imagine there’s a way to get rid of an 11 year old homebuilt PC (good specs at the time, but still). I would be willing to pay a service to dispose of it in environmentally-responsible way, but I also feel like that you really need to know who you’re giving it to since whenever I see e-waste sites pop up around town it always seems shady.

Suggestions?

  • JakenVeina@midwest.socialEnglish
    19·
    7 days ago

    You can look for an electronics recycling facility near you.

    To be clear, the prospects for e-waste, in general, aren’t great, but they’re a little better with a place like this. They’re definitely dumping a lot of their stuff in a landfill, eventually, cause there’s really not much business in trying to recover copper or gold or silicon or whatever, at a raw level, but there IS a business in it for them to try and find new life for discarded electronics that still work. The place near me will pick out really nice stuff, like servers or projectors, and actively fix them up to resell, individually. They also will work with businesses looking to buy general purpose hardware, in bulk, for cheap. I used to work for a guy that would buy old used PCs by the pallet load, to fix, re-image and resell. It was generally profitable, even with the understanding that a portion of any bulk purchase might be irreparable junk.

    A general purpose PC is definitely higher on the list for likelihood to find a home. Even higher is LCD monitors, keyboard, mice, etc. When COVID hit and I had to setup a home office, I went to my local place and picked 2 LCD monitors out of a literal pallet box full of hundreds, for like $20 each. Also, grabbed an old office chair.

    The BEST option, unfortunately, is always gonna be re-homing it yourself.

  • kindenough@kbin.earth
    8·
    7 days ago

    I mostly donate my old(er) computer components to people in need of. After that, I always bring electronics to the civic amenity site for recycling.

    They run thrift stores as well, so usable electronics, clothing, furniture et cetera we bring there. It is better for the enviroment and brings our taxes down on waste collection and disposal.

  • drhead [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    1·
    6 days ago

    Can’t say much about where to dispose of things, but if drives are part of what you are disposing, look up how to use the ATA Secure Erase command to erase them. It’ll be much faster than any other method of erasing a drive (essentially instant, basically drives that support this encrypt everything by default and using ATA Secure Erase just deletes the key) and will make old data inaccessible on it but will leave the drive reusable.