What Should I Do With My Tech Junk? 521
Thomas Matysik writes "I'm attempting to de-clutter my house and I've hit a rough patch: the computer room. I've got a bunch of wires, hardware and software that (I think) were useful at one point in time, but these days it doesn't do much more than take up space. Selling it seems like it'd be a huge hassle and it seems really wasteful for me to just pitch all of this stuff in the dumpster. I've considered giving it away to Goodwill, but I'm afraid that's not the right sort of outlet for this stuff. My question: what should I do with all of my tech junk?"
I Keep My Junk (Score:5, Interesting)
I've been working at home as a consultant (software engineering) for over 15 years. Doing a lot of embedded programming, I've accumulated lots of custom and COTS hardware over the years that I almost never use. The problem is the word "almost." On a rare occasion some suspected bug gets reported and I have to dig out some hardware that I haven't used in years and get it working again. After verifying that the suspected bug is really user error, I then pack it away in the basement.
So for me, I just keep everything. It's all worthless, anyhow. How much would someone pay for a Hayes 2400 baud modem? Or a 68040 based Mac running System 7? Or an 802.11 (not a, b, or g) Access Point? I also have early 802.11-draft wireless equipment if that sweetens the deal for anyone. :)
Just Imagine! (Score:2, Interesting)
And use them to sun some distributing computer projects, like folding@home etc.
Flea Market (Score:5, Interesting)
It depends on where you live, but there may be a flea market specifically for this sort of stuff that you can give away for free. If you are within traveling distance to Boston, MIT holds an event called the "SwapFest" which is precisely that. You need to pay a small fee to sell, and then can give away stuff for free, or actually take money for the more expensive equipment. More info at http://www.swapfest.us/ [swapfest.us]
As mentioned in yesterday's Africa discussion... (Score:3, Interesting)
...one great strategy seems to be leaving all your tech "junk" in a conspicuous spot near the curb just before bed. Unless you're in an extremely quiet neighborhood, it seems there's *always* someone around who's interested in an old 486 tower or a Franklin Ace machine. I've used the same method a few times, and it seems that there's always some old-school hacker prowling the streets at 3AM hoping to score some vintage hardware or parts.
It's either that, or homeless people have learned how to eat 25-year-old 5 1/4" floppies of pirated Apple II games...
Kid's arts and crafts (Score:2, Interesting)
Adult arts and crafts too.
A motherboard and paint makes cool artwork.
Disk platters are good for all kinds of things.
Re:Bring it to a recycling centre (Score:1, Interesting)
I agree, take it to a local recycling center. Dumping electronics should not even be an option. Every landfill is already laced with toxic stuff, there's no reason to add more.
Re:Bring it to a recycling centre (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd have some reservations about taking it to many "recyclers". Some actually perform the recycling and metals reclaimation themselves, but many more just take all the equipment to the Third World (Africa and South Asia seem to be popular) and dump it there [mailonsunday.co.uk].
Anyone taking old IT junk for free or without charging significantly for its disposal is almost certainly dumping. Although there is a significant precious-metals content in them, it's not (yet) worth the labor required to reclaim it in the developed world. (Which is why you don't see people soliciting e-waste in the same way they do scrap metal or junk cars.) It's a lucrative business when you can employ starving children to do it, but not so much otherwise.
Re:I Keep My Junk (Score:3, Interesting)
I literally have an entire extra bedroom in my house that's just filled with old tech crap. 3 old DVD players, 2 Xbox 1's (one of which is broken), a wide assortment of A/V converters/switches, enough cabling to reach the moon and back, about 10 video cards, 3 modems, 3 soundcards, 2 motherboards, 4 computer cases, one full Pentium 2 computer, 2 CRT monitors, 3 VCR's, 2 laserdisc players (the DVD player of its day), some 20-odd remote controls, one CED player, one turntable, and so many countless obscure tech items that I often even surprise myself going through one of these boxes o'crap.
I keep telling myself I may need some of this stuff one day (and a few times I actually have). But mostly, I'm just too lazy to throw it away and wouldn't know how to if I wasn't (hate to just dump this stuff into a landfill).
Re:FreeCycle and computer/metal recycling. (Score:5, Interesting)
The Great ... (Score:2, Interesting)
List of BAN-approved e-waste recyclers (Score:4, Interesting)
Just as a follow-up ... anyone considering taking e-waste to a recycler should first check to see if the recycler is listed here [ban.org] as having been approved by the Basel Action Network (an anti-dumping group). The list includes "e-Waste recyclers that have agreed to adhere to strict criteria [...] The criteria require that no hazardous electronics equipment or parts (as defined internationally) will be exported to developing countries or be processed by captive prison labor, and that none of it will end up in landfills or incinerators."
As far as I know, it's the only (somewhat) reliable way to know that a "recycler" isn't just exporting the trash to the developing world. Many recyclers talk a lot about the environment, but don't give very many specifics about what actually happens to e-waste you drop off (besides vague platitudes like "in accordance with all State and Federal laws" which means little given how minimal most laws concerning e-waste are). That's because they may just be loading it into containers bound for the other side of the planet.
TGIMBOEJ (Score:2, Interesting)
Mail it to someone! Check out tgimboej.org -- The Great Internet Migratory Box of Electronics Junk, conceived by the wacky cats at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories.
Re:I Keep My Junk (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, that Hayes modem is worth about $400 to the right customer. Specifically some poor bloke who does old-school business alarms.
True story: Big Storm rolls through town with the full set of pyrotechnics. Blows up my very expensive US Robotics Courier HST modem. I was sad. But not as sad as the alarm company dude who rolls into the computer store the following morning desperate for a modem that'll do 110 baud. 'Cause that's the fastest his gear runs. We have boxes and boxes of modems but they all bottom out at 300 baud. But! Inventory shows that we have an original Hayes 2400 in stock. I and another tech spend half an hour digging it out. Sure enough, it goes down to 110 baud. Dude asks the boss what its price is, boss points at the sticker on the (unopened! shrink-wrapped!) box which says $399.95. Fellow turns red and stammers. Boss shrugs and tells us to return the box to the bowels of the stockroom. Fellow about has a stroke and then asks if we take a business check. Boss smiles and takes the desperate man's money.
Re:Bring it to a recycling centre (Score:3, Interesting)
all my life using lead solder on my kitchen table ... Oh that's right. I don't eat the solder! Fortunately, neither do these kids
And does your kitchen look like this [sciencedaily.com]? No, I didn't think so. But it's easier to ignore the real situation by making a flip comment from the clean safety of your wealthy home.
full article for the interested [sciencedaily.com]
Re:There comes a point... (Score:4, Interesting)
You try to give it away, sell it, kid yourself that you'll find "some use" for it some day.
I met a rich old man once (early 1980s) who said the secret to his success was never throw anything away. A friend of his needed some cash when the Great Depression hit, to buy a couple of mules and a wagon. So he bought his friend's old Model-T ford for fifteen bucks, just as a favor. He had no use for it and stored it in his barn.
Some time in the 1950s someone saw it and paid the guy a hundred thousand dollars for it, which was quite a sum of cash back then. He invested the hundred grand and was a multimillionaire when I met him.
My main computer went titsup a couple of months ago, so I dragged an old one out of the baseement. Last weekend I finally got around to moving the hard drives from the PC with the bad power supply to the old Dell someone had given me.
The Dell had only one power cable for a hard drive; there were no spares. Looking through all my computer junk I found an old chip fan that was powered by a jumper cable with a male drive power supply on one end and a female on the other. I cut the double drive supply out of the broken computer, and spliced it to half of the supply for the chip fan.
Probably saved myself five or ten bucks, certainly it took less time than a trip to Best Buy or Radio Shack.
If you have room for it, keep it.
Fix it up for kids www.patchx.org (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Here's my idea (Score:5, Interesting)
Drop in some coins from the 1940s as well. Just to really and make sure that there are no manufacturing date on the stuff as well.
On and translate the manuals into Latin and put it on stone tablets.
Re:Bring it to a recycling centre (Score:5, Interesting)
Scrap centers are everywhere. I live in a rural area, and there are several places that accept this stuff. It's just kind of 'known' around here as to who takes it. Not sure how you would locate them...Yellowpages under Scrap maybe?
What you will have to dissassemble probably depends on what it is and where you take it. Cabling you can bring in insulation and all...some places want the plug ends removed though, some don't. Once you locate one, they can tell you exactly what they will take. Many places even take old refrigerators, washers/dryers, etc. whole.
Re:There comes a point... (Score:5, Interesting)
I met a rich old man once (early 1980s) who said the secret to his success was never throw anything away.
That would have to be one really cherry car to have gotten that much for it in the 50's!
But for every millionaire that happen to collect the right thing, the old baseball card or rare comic book, I'll bet there are at least 100 old people with newspaper and trash stacked to the ceiling because they can't force themselves to part with any of it.
I go by the 3 rules of cleaning out junk:
1. Am I using it now? If yes, then keep.
2. Is it something sentimental? If yes, then keep (and maybe find a way to display it instead of it sitting in a box gathering dust.)
3. Is it something that I might find a use for later? THROW IT OUT!
Re:There comes a point... (Score:3, Interesting)
"OK, OK, so the "recycler" will just ship it to China where it will be melted down in the open but that's another rant."
A common way to "recycle" monitors is to whack them with a sledge, grab the copper, and pitch the rest. I wouldn't expect anything out of "recycling" them other than feeling good about the faint possibility the parts were properly processed.
Put it on the altar (Score:4, Interesting)
Go to Rhodes Hall.
Outside of the big lecture room, in the hallway, actually behind where the lecturer would stand are two counter tops.
Leave your computer hardware, software or books there.
If you see anything you like, take it with you. This is the sacrificial altar to the gods of geekdom. All are welcome to take or remove and tech/geek item you want. Much of it is reused by students making insane projects.
Re:A similar idea (Score:3, Interesting)