donating or recycling old computers

Apparently computers/peripherals are the latest landfill problem. I gave ours away to a friend. I still felt guilty because of its low power.

The stuff below is UK specific I'm afraid,but it might give you a clue.

If your old computer is still working, give it to a charity for recycling. Contact organisations such as Techknowledgy, a UK charity that supplies developing nations with educational equipment (www.tky.org.uk Also try Computers for Charity (www.computersforcharity.org.uk 01288-361 177), Community Computers (www.community-computers.co.uk, 0113-293 0168) and Computer Aid International (www.computeraid.org, 020- 7281 0091).

Brian OReilly

I tried giving away a Perfectly good Pentium 1 to one of the UK recycling charities but they weren't really interested. Wanted to charge me £20 to collect it, I agreed but they never bothered to do so, despite several phone calls chasing them up.

Eventually I gave up on them, stuck it on eBay and got £49 for it from a guy who was happy to collect.

I guess if you have a suitable charity really local to you it might be different, but otherwise not worth the hassle unless you're a company with a minimum 10 machines to dispose of, then they'll take them away for nothing.

David

Brian, David... thanks.

I'll do a search to see if any local operations in Kentucky recycle or reuse old computers.

Undeniably, it has little monetary value, but my old Mac should have some *practical* value as it could be could be used to generate a local low-graphics newsletter in the field for a non-profit agency. All that you need to get started is right there -- computer with 64 MB RAM, 56k modem, laser printer, old versions of Quark, Photoshop and MS Office, scanner, 100 MB zip drive, ...

Joe

Jo, your other option might be just to stick it in the loft or cellar for 20 years in the hope it will then become a collectors piece and return at least the money you paid for it

I tried to do that with an old Amstrad PC1640 I bought in '87, but sadly as of last year I ended up giving it away to a collector just to make the space. He'll now benefit rather then me

David,

quote:

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...stick it in the loft or cellar for 20 years in the hope it will then become a collectors piece and return at least the money you paid for it

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Unfortunately, not all old computers are equally collectible. I foolishly sold my original Mac ages ago -- when it still had some monetary value (all of $50) -- only to discover several years later that these models were sought after by collectors and fish nerds. No joke, someone marketed a kit to turn the original Mac into a "Macquarium."



Better than most screen savers...

Joe

Joe,

You might try giving it away to a drop-in shelter or other social organization (what's Kentucky's skid row called?).

I worked at a shelter for years and we got a computer club going with all these old computers that people would donate. The power doesn't really matter.
Quite a few had an inner nerd screaming to get out and the old computers would be great for learning how to write programs.
There was one guy who taught himself how to write assmebly lang with a donated 386 laptop and book.

quote:

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"Macquarium."

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Jo, That's a cute scheme, maybe I could do the same with my 17" toob, when I finally save enough to replace it with a TFT - I could call it a "Dellirium".

David

However not all charities can afford to have a disparate array of old machines - charities also have a need to be efficient and IT savvy in order to do their business.

So do not be offended if the offer of a 386 is refused - the charity might be running a sophisticated IT infrastructure (or be trying to get to such a state) However I can see that charities that support needy endusers could be a different situation.

Derek

<< >>

It might be rewarding to find a needy KY family with a child. Posting something at the local post office, grocery store, etc should do the trick. If it doesn't land in the hands of a family some nerd will take it, and that's not so bad either.

FM! I did a bit of googling and it looks like my clunker might be worth something. Recycledgoods.com sells a used Performa 6300CD for $325. (Maybe they'll take mine for a decent discount on a 16 Port Ring Laser Gyro Fill Station. One can only hope.)

And this eBay clown is selling one, sans monitor, for $75.

Well, I'm still opting to give it away, but maybe I can use this info to convince a charity that they might want this donation.

Joe