Old Computer Disposal

We live in a rich society that can throw out may be old, but working computers and at times we even hire old computer disposal companies to do the disposing for us. Whether you are disposing of your old computer yourself or hiring old computer disposal companies, there are precautionary steps you must take for reasons including security, environment, and latent residual value.

I lived in downtown Manhattan for most of my adult life, but as a kid I grew up in Queens NY. Even though Manhattan is only a bridge-cross away, the gap in the standard of living between the two cities was very apparent. Before living in the city I had no idea Manhattanites were so wasteful, that’s “wasteful” compared to the people in Queens.

My apartment in Manhattan had a small garbage chute room on every floor and the residents would leave the bigger garbage like furniture or TV in the chute room following the apartment’s policy. It was about a month after I moved to the apartment I started noticing some good stuff being thrown out. I was reluctant to pick up someone else’s garbage at first but it didn’t take too long for me to start bringing some of those garbages into my apartment, not to mention traveling on different floors a few times a month.

In my two years living in that apartment, I was able to pickup these things:

VCR (for you kids out there that’s Video Cassette Recorder), camcorder, a receiver with 4 working speakers, 6 desktops, 2 printers, 2 televisions, and 2 laptops are the things that I remember from the top of my head. To be fair, the desktops and laptops were somewhat slow but they didn’t belong in the garbage.

But going back to the topic, among the things I found in the desktops and laptops were;
About 2000 songs (mp3), names, addresses, chat transcripts, emails, photos, spreadsheets with credit card information (including names, card number, debts), and a notepad document containing passwords for every accounts held online.

It is really befuddling how stupid people are about leaving their personal information in the computer’s hard disk and just dumping them altogether. In the wrong hands, that sort of information leak could put you in a lot of troubles.

There are many applications that can format your hard disk drive, but erasing and formatting just isn’t secure enough. Deleting data only erases the shortcuts to the files making it invisible to you but the data is still on the disk. While formatting is a little more secure than just deleting, it still only erases the address table on the drive.

Here are some things you can do to protect yourself:

Reuse - Remove the hard drive from your old pc and install it in your new systems for extra storage space.

Melt it – If there’s a machine shop nearby your residence, they can melt your hard drive for a small fee. Make sure you see it with your own eye it being melted.

Disk Wiping – You can purchase disk wiping software which will make data recovery even by professionals impossible. Disk wiping process involves overwriting your entire hard drive with data, several times. After disk wiping is complete, then you will format your hard drive and the data that existed before overwrite will be impossible to recover.

Degaussing - Find a local company that use degaussing machine that will essentially destroy all data on your hard disk drive, degaussing a single hard drive shouldn’t cost too much.

Instead of throwing out your old system, here are some things you can do to increase its lifespan and decrease your carbon footprint as well.

Sell it – Use Ebay or a free bulletin board community like Craigslist to sell your old system and make a buck or two. Before you come to a conclusion that your system is too old, let the people decide it. All sorts of garbage are sold on Ebay and incredibly there are lots of buyers for those junks. A functioning desktop or laptop will be sold and it’s just the matter of the final price. Dump it and is zero dollars for you, so make some extra money and give someone a chance to purchase a pc for a bargain, I’d call that a win-win.

Give it away – You can give your computer to a friend or a family member. Again, before you decide that your system is too slow for them, ask them and let them make the decision.

Donate it – Lots of charities and non-profit organizations can make a good use of any functioning computers.

Install Linux – Microsoft Windows OS and Mac OS X are fat and dumb operating systems that require lots of computing power. Linux is lean and smart. It truly is the grand-daddy of all operating system. Linux will extend the lifespan of an old system by many years. And did I tell you it’s free?

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have guidelines laid out on recycling computers, please be sure to comply with the guidelines.

Here are some facts that you should know:

The Environmental Protection Agency has strict regulations regarding the disposal of hazardous materials
Penalties for violations are distributed in the form of fines as well as Public Service
Nearly 250 million computers will become obsolete in the next five years
Many people discard computers every three to five years
In 2004, only 11 percent of personal computers retired in the U.S. were recycled.

Original source, official EPA website.

Computers can contain an average of four pounds of lead as well as other potentially harmful substances like zinc, nickel, chromium, mercury, beryllium, and brominated flame retardants.

Before sending your aging system to an old computer disposal company, protect yourself by eradicating all data on the hard drive or reusing just the hard drive in your new system. Most old computer disposal companies guarantee erasing all data from your hard drive, but that’s really beside the point. I hope I’ve answered your queries on “Old Computer Disposal” and hopefully you’ll think twice before dumping your system next time.