How to recycle your old PC

Aside from the sheer waste of dumping something that you paid so much for just few years ago, there is a whole host of potentially hazardous chemicals and elements that make up your computer. These include cadmium, lead, tin and plastics treated with flame retardants, which are all potentially harmful to people and the environment.

There is a profitable business trading and extracting these, and more precious elements like gold and copper from e-waste. A lot is rendered down safely and securely in modern factories, but unfortunately some is still shipped out to the developing nations. In places like Guiyu, China your old motherboard is cooked down to separate the elements causing huge environmental damage. Guiyu has the dubious honour of being the second most polluted place on the planet.

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Fortunately it doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom because if you are willing to put that little bit of extra effort in there are numerous options for dealing with your e-waste.

Your local council is obligated to take it off your hands and dispose of it properly under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive. Some local councils will however charge up to £25 for this.

The contact details for your local Environment Officer can be found on your local council website. Check under the “Site A-Z” at the top of the page, they should be under “E”. Alternatively go to www.recycle-more.co.uk to find the nearest recycling center.

You can often recycle with the company that made your hardware – see below for details. Some retail stores such as PC World will also accept your old computer when you buy a new replacement.

The best option by far, if your hardware has some working life in it, is to give to charity. IT For Charities runs a portal (itforcharities.co.uk) for those looking to donate or receive technology – not just computers, but everything from phones to internet routers. Check out their database of charities or NGOs near you that would be happy to take your hardware, or list it with donateapc.org.uk and if someone wants it they’ll come to collect it from you.

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Apple are one of the cleanest companies out there, they provide a full account of the impact of all their business online and have strived to cut down on materials. The MacBook Pro body for example is made from a single piece of recyclable aluminium.

In the US they offer free couriered recycling, although in UK you have to purchase a new Apple computer to recycle one. At any Apple store you can recycle Apple batteries free of charge and get a 10 per cent discount on a new iPod if you hand in an old one.

HP offers extensive recycling services and a trade in scheme for its US customers. They also take non-HP technology for a small fee. In the UK however they only offer a direct trade, otherwise they support the council initiatives.

As with most of the other companies, Dell offers greater recycling services in the US where it runs a donate system for charity scheme. Their European service is pretty extensive however, and they will recycle any brand of PC when you buy a new Dell one, or free recycling on any Dell product. They also offer freepost recycling for old printer consumables when you buy a new Dell one.

Microsoft work with a variety of charities and businesses to encourage the recycling and refurbishing of computers. They are also part of the European Recycling Platform along with Sony and HP.

Whatever you do with your computer it is vitally important to properly wipe your hard-drive. Your computer can retain all sorts of valuable information that you may not realise is even there. To a certain extent information will always be recoverable, but you will need to properly over-write your drive using a program such as DBAN to make it almost impossible to recover.

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