Find A Recycler Near You
There are several specialty electronics recyclers out there. But bewarethere are scammers posing as recyclers who want to steal the personal information on your hard drive. Thats why wiping it before recycling is so important.
Another great step to reduce the risk of being scammed is doing your research and recycling your laptop through a reputable recycler, preferably one certified by the EPA.
How To Dispose Of Old Computers
Do you know how to dispose of old computers? So many computers and other pieces of electronic equipment become obsolete every year, and yet disposing of computers remains a mystery to many people. Don’t just throw them in the trash there is a proper way to get rid of old computers. You can recycle old computers, which can reduce pollution and the use of energy. Or, you can repurpose or even donate old computers if they still have life in them.
Electronic equipment contains valuable resources: gold, palladium, copper, and rare earth elements. Computers also contain lead, mercury, and cadmium, all materials that have health effects if they get into groundwater or if they are incinerated. In general, reducing the amount of material in the waste stream is a good idea.
Before we begin, do you really need to get rid of it? Check out our guide that helps you see whether you need to upgrade or replace your computer. Oftentimes, an upgrade will speed up and modernize your system and may surprise you. But with aging PCs, often they just need to be repurposed, donated, or retired and recycled.
By Step Laptop Disposal
The two key considerations when you are getting rid of an old laptop are GDPR data protection and environmental protection. Heres how to responsibly dispose of an old laptop, step by step.
It really is that simple to dispose of your old laptops responsibly? The important thing is not to be tempted by the DIY hard drive destruction methods online. Dipping your hard drive in water, bleach or anything else is not going to eradicate the data. Neither is drilling holes in it or smashing it with a hammer. The only fool-proof way to meet your GDPR data protection obligations is to hire a responsible, professional data shredding services company that can provide you with a Certificate of Destruction.
Cyclone Shredding offers onsite, supervised and certified computer hard drive shredding. Contact us today to get a quote.
Cyclone Shredding
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How To Recycle Computers Laptops Tablets And Monitors
Any items that have a plug, use batteries, need charging or have a picture of a crossed out wheelie bin on, are known as Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment .
These items should not be disposed of in the waste bin and should be recycled.
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When you replace a laptop or computer the retailer you buy it from is legally required to help you dispose of your old machine. Ask instore for details.
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Donating unwanted computer equipment to a charity is a great way to help others. For some charities it is important that the equipment is in good working order however other groups have technicians who can repair them. Search locally for similar schemes.
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Computer equipment can also be taken to Recycling Centres – find your nearest below.
How Do You Recycle An Old Laptop
Most computer manufacturers release new laptops every year, which means people can upgrade their current laptop anytime they feel like it’s not working well. However, with the upgrade cycle increasing, more laptops end up in landfills, and it’s doing irreparable damage to the environment. A better alternative is to recycle your old laptop.
Fortunately, there are plenty of options for recycling. If you have a laptop less than five years old, you may be able to donate it. Non-profit organizations and schools are often happy to receive older laptops in good working condition. They’ll refurbish the computers for students or volunteer to use. Earth911 is an excellent place to start looking for places to donate your computer.
Just enter your zip code and search for organizations that take laptops as donations. And as an alternative, there may be local organizations, churches, or schools thrilled to have a gently used laptop . You’ll need to find those places through local connections.
Older laptops might not be able to be donated and will need to be sent or taken to a recycling center prepared to dispose of the machines properly. Several organizations have recycling programs for laptops . Each of these sites offers a program, and for the most part, all you’ll need to do is enter your zip code to find a location near you.
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How To Properly Dispose And Recycle A Used Or Old Laptop
Once youve purchased a new laptop for an upgrade, youll probably wonder what youre going to do with the old one. Little did you know merely throwing it away in the trash bin isnt a good idea. Laptops are built with different kinds of toxins that are harmful to people and the environment.
Many businesses have policies regarding proper disposals of old desktops and laptops. Although its best to recycle, its also crucial to get rid of your laptops sensitive data before anything else. You need to ensure that you wont throw off your old laptop immediately without deleting any retrievable data.
When youre done with your old laptop, make sure its also done with you. Even though its considered trash, anyone who has a charger can still open your old laptop and access your data. And its not just ordinary data thats at risk. Your old laptop contains passwords, registration numbers/license keys, contact numbers, account numbers, and other sensitive data. With all these pieces of information, you dont want your old laptop to fall into the wrong hands.
If you dont want your sensitive data from being compromised, here are all the must-know on how to dispose of your old laptop.
How Do I Prepare My Laptop For Recycling
When you’re getting rid of a working laptop, back up all your data and make sure you have copies of everything you want to keep. You can either do so manually or use backup software to help you with the process. Depending on how old your laptop is, this could take a little time.
When you’re backing up your old data, try to think about accounts requiring authorization to access the laptop. You may need to deactivate or deauthorize your old device before you can authorize a new one to use in its place.
Once you’ve backed up all your files, then you’ll want to rewrite your hard drive to remove all your personal data before the laptop leaves your possession. Technically speaking, this is a two-step process. First, wipe your hard drive clean of all your personal data, and then do a complete reinstall of your operating system. Reinstalling Windows is slightly different from reinstalling macOS.
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Recycle Your Old Computer
Depending on your community, there can be multiple options for recycling your computer. Organizations will occasionally run recycling drives to get a truckload of electronics. This is a good way to do bulk recycling.
In some communities, there will also be a place that can take electronic equipment for safe disposal. This will often be connected to the municipal sanitary landfill, garbage collection, or recycling organizations. There might be limited hours or collection points, so you’ll need to do some research.
It’s never a good idea to toss a computer out with the trash. In addition to adding to the amount of waste, there are components valuable to someone building a computer, and heavy metals that no one wants in the environment.
What To Recycle And What To Keep
Every laptop comes with some additional package. In the event of damage, these additional components such as the power supply may or may not succumb to the ephemeral nature of their existence. Either way, you may want to keep them instead of recycling the entire package.
Here are components you may choose to keep with you
. Battery pack
. Keyboard/ Touchpad
. Card Reader, etc.
Whether youll keep or recycle the hard drive depends on the level of physical damage and of course the importance of data it entails. If your hard drive has some sensitive information that you want to retrieve in the shortest time possible, you can choose to keep it with you before trying to access using another computer.
The RAM can be a valuable addition to your next laptops memory depending on its storage capacity and clock speed. If your broken laptop has a functional 8 GB RAM, you can safely detach it from the motherboard before recycling the broken laptop.
In case you recycle your broken laptop with the hard disk intact you dont have to worry about any data being leaked to some third parties. According to the data destruction regulations there are a number of data disposal methods that ensures high-level privacy and security.
Uses of the refined Electronic Recycling Parts
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Trade In The Broken Laptop For Gift Cards Or Cash
There are many laptop companies and electronic stores where you can trade in your redundant laptops and computers for a small amount of money. All you have to do is search online for the companies that offer such trade-in programs. Compare the payment methods and amount of money offered by these companies. You should choose the one that offers you the best deal.
Where To Take Common E
Batteries
Mobile phones
MobileMuster is a free, not-for-profit mobile phone recycling program that accepts all brands and types of mobile phones, plus their batteries, chargers and accessories.
Dropping items off is free but don’t forget to properly remove your personal data.
Smoke detectors
Domestic smoke alarms are not included in the e-waste ban and can be disposed of in your rubbish bin.
Whitegoods
Metal from whitegoods can be recycled again and again to make new products, so it’s important that they don’t end up in landfill.
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Deauthorize Software And Programs
Computer applications such as iTunes, Adobe Creative, and Office365 limit the number of registered users and devices associated with a valid subscription. Therefore, ensure to deauthorize your accounts and other services from your old laptop before uninstalling them. Although some apps such as Adobe allow the installation on two registered devices, theres no point in retaining your account in an old laptop that youll eventually recycle.
To deactivate the Adobe app from your old laptop, follow these steps:
Turn The Hard Drive As An External Hard Drive
If your hard drive of the broken laptop can still work, but the machine is unusable, you can take the disk out of your laptop and use it as an external hard drive. Or, you can install the hard drive of the damaged laptop to a desktop and let it be a second storage disk.
Tip:
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Locate A Computer Disposal Facility In Your Area
Computer circuit boards may contain cadmium, mercury, chromium, and lead! The average monitor can contain anywhere from 1.5 to 8 pounds of lead. Circuit boards contain lead, as well. How is keeping one old computer, instead of recycling it going to affect the environment? One computer? In 2010, 71.7 million new laptops and desktop computers were purchased in the U.S. alone. In that year, those same consumers disposed of 423,000 tons of computers. And only 40% of those computers were actually recycled. The rest of them ended up in landfills. Thats not even including the 595,000 tons of computer monitors, of which only 33% were recycled.
Donating Your Old Computer
If your computer or laptop is in working condition, you should consider donating to a worthy cause close to your heart. A donation can be even better than recycling because the more extended use we can get out of an object, the better, it can still be recycled later after doing some good for people in need. Below is a shortlist of just a few well-known organizations that accept computer donations, you can also check with a shelter or charitable organization in your area.
Computers With Causes will repair or refurbish your old computer equipment if it financially makes sense. Your donation is wholly tax-deductible.
World Computer Exchange this is an international organization tied to over 450 partner organizations worldwide. They do have some criteria to meet to accept your donation.
Goodwill Organizations collects, repairs, and then sells donated computers, and they also accept monitors. More substantial donations from businesses can arrange for pickup from Goodwill.
National Cristina Foundation this is a wonderful organization that matches your or your businesss old computer equipment with a vetted charity organization focused on providing technology to underprivileged populations.
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Turn It Into An External Monitor
You can also reuse your old laptop as an external monitor, as long as the monitor is in okay shape. Using multiple monitors while youre on your new computer can help you work much quicker.
To do this, youll need to use an application to control your old laptop remotely or cables to connect your devices.
How To Recycle Your Old Computer
Getting rid of an old computer? Here’s how to make sure you recycle it safely
When you’re done with your old laptop, Mac or PC, don’t just throw it in the rubbish. Make sure you recycle it properly, including safely removing any personal data on your computer’s hard drive.
Recycling an old computer can be relatively straightforward. When you buy a new electrical item such as a PC or laptop, the retailer you buy from is legally obliged to help you safely and responsibly dispose of the item you are replacing.
In practice, this means that retailers should either:
- provide a free, in store, take-back service for your old item when you buy a new version
- set up an alternative, free take-back service.
If the seller cannot provide either of the above, they must contribute to the cost of local recycling services.
Whichever service a retailer provides, they must provide free written information, including details of the service, how electrical equipment can be reused and recycled, and why electrical items need to be separated from other household rubbish. The information that retailers provide can include posters in-store, online information or printed leaflets.
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But if you can’t use a retailer’s recycling system, there are plenty of other options, which we explain below. We also explain how to wipe your personal data from your old laptop or PC before you dispose of it.
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Find A Pc Recycle Center Near Me
Why cant I just throw my computer away? Well, thats because it contains hazardous waste, like heavy metals. And some of these metals are in short supply. Some examples are tin, silicon, iron, and aluminum. By 2009, 38% of computers were recycled in the United States. Computer recycling is considered environmentally friendly and keeps toxins and carcinogens from entering the atmosphere. Recycling one computer with its monitor can save 539 pounds of fossil fuel, 48 pounds of chemicals, and 1.5 tons of water.
Turn The Display Into A Standalone Monitor
If your broken laptops screen still works but other components dont work, you can use it as another monitor for your other computer.
Step 1: To do this work, you need to go to Settings > System > Projecting to this PC and choose Available everywhere on Secured Networks or Available everywhere.
Step 2: In your main computer, press Win + P at the same time to get the Project menu and choose how you want to make use of your screen.
Step 3: The primary PC will look for available devices. Just choose your laptop.
Step 4: When getting a projection request to the target device, go to the laptop screen, and accept the request.
To know more information, read this post – How to Use a Laptop as a Second Monitor for Multitasking.
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Protect Data Before Selling A Broken Laptop
The hard drive of your broken laptop may hold much information including personal files, bank information, website log-ins, passwords, and more. You had better erase your data before selling your laptop for cash. Or else, criminals could make use of your personal information.
Besides, if there are some important files saved on the hard drive and you also should back up them, then erase them.
Back up Files Before Selling Broken Laptops
How can you back up files on your broken laptop? As you know, when the laptop is damaged, the Windows operating system may be unbootable. So, file backup becomes a difficult task. But, if you use a professional PC backup software, the thing becomes easy.
MiniTool ShadowMaker, developed by MiniTool, is designed to back up files, folders, Windows operating systems, disks, and partitions. Importantly, it offers a feature to allow you to create a bootable disc or USB drive so that you can keep your PC when the PC cannot start up.
Step 1: Launch MiniTool ShadowMaker, go to the Tools tab and choose Media Builder, follow the guide on the screen to create a bootable CD/DVD disc or USB flash drive.
Step 2: Insert the bootable drive to your broken laptop, change the boot order, and run the machine from the drive. Also, prepare an external hard drive as the storage backup device.
Step 3: Navigate to the Backup window, click the section, choose Folders and Files, and check all the items that you want to back up.
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