Where do old computers go to die?

On Thursday, September 10, 2015 at 8:23:52 AM UTC+8, Nil wrote:

Where I live, the city councils have a "verge pickup" twice a year.
You put out junk including e-waste for them to collect.
Generally, scavengers come around first and take them away (even old DDR/AGP era beige boxes). Although some of them just cherry pick useful parts and scatter the carcass.

"Phantom Post" wrote in message
. 209.88...
Nil wrote in news:XnsA510CF7D2F10Fnilch1
@wheedledeedle.moc:

What should I do with this junk? I don't expect it would be worth the
effort to sell the stuff considering the pennies I might get for them.
I believe I'd have to pay to have them taken away as trash, since
electronics are usually classified as hazardous material.


If you've got Goodwill nearby they take it all. All they do is check to
make sure you're local to them. In SoCal I got rid of a bunch of
computers, monitors, misc electronics through them.


Around here, almost all of the thrift stores like Goodwill, The Red Door
(Carolina Hospice), Salvation Army, etc., quit taking appliances and
electronics because so many people would drop them off, stating they worked,
when in actuality, they didn't work at all, or not well enough to sell.
Since the stores had to pay for the disposal of these items, and not having
the staff or expertise to test everything, they just quit accepting them. I
had a couple of older printers and CRT TVs that still worked fine, but
nobody wanted them. I have a friend who works for CAPA, and she took the
printers to use in the office, and took one of the TVs for use in one of the
guest rooms. The other I had to dump at an electronic recycling event.
--
SC Tom

On Mon, 14 Sep 2015 09:25:12 -0400, "SC Tom" wrote:

Around here, almost all of the thrift stores like Goodwill, The Red Door
(Carolina Hospice), Salvation Army, etc., quit taking appliances and
electronics because so many people would drop them off, stating they worked,
when in actuality, they didn't work at all, or not well enough to sell.

Yep. When I told them I'd bring the truck by to drop some old
computer gear off at night in the back of the store, they said - Yup,
and we'll call the police on you.

Might have even known what he was talking about. They often employ
people serving out probation terms for a prior conviction. I didn't
bother, make a fuss, play snake eyes, or demand to speak to
management.

wrote:
On Thursday, September 10, 2015 at 8:23:52 AM UTC+8, Nil wrote:

Where I live, the city councils have a "verge pickup" twice a year.
You put out junk including e-waste for them to collect.
Generally, scavengers come around first and take them away (even old DDR/AGP era beige boxes). Although some of them just cherry pick useful parts and scatter the carcass.

In Monmouth County, NJ some towns now have a electronic recycling "green"
container (it is painted green) where you can dump old computers, TV sets, etc
any day of the week. We also have a company which will take your old drives and
grind them up for $5 a piece and you can stand there and watch them do it. That
is the ultimate disk "wipe". Too bad Hillary had not heard of this :-)

njoracle wrote:
wrote:
On Thursday, September 10, 2015 at 8:23:52 AM UTC+8, Nil wrote:

Where I live, the city councils have a "verge pickup" twice a year.
You put out junk including e-waste for them to collect.
Generally, scavengers come around first and take them away (even old DDR/AGP era beige boxes). Although some of them just cherry pick useful parts and scatter the carcass.

In Monmouth County, NJ some towns now have a electronic recycling "green"
container (it is painted green) where you can dump old computers, TV sets, etc
any day of the week. We also have a company which will take your old drives and
grind them up for $5 a piece and you can stand there and watch them do it. That
is the ultimate disk "wipe". Too bad Hillary had not heard of this :-)

I do that with a hammer. My wife asked me, how do you know when you're
done? I say when I'm sufficiently satisfied no one would bother with
it. I will offer my service for $4. : )

Bill wrote:
njoracle wrote:
wrote:
On Thursday, September 10, 2015 at 8:23:52 AM UTC+8, Nil wrote:

Where I live, the city councils have a "verge pickup" twice a year.
You put out junk including e-waste for them to collect.
Generally, scavengers come around first and take them away (even old DDR/AGP
era beige boxes). Although some of them just cherry pick useful parts and
scatter the carcass.

In Monmouth County, NJ some towns now have a electronic recycling "green"
container (it is painted green) where you can dump old computers, TV sets, etc
any day of the week. We also have a company which will take your old drives and
grind them up for $5 a piece and you can stand there and watch them do it. That
is the ultimate disk "wipe". Too bad Hillary had not heard of this :-)

I do that with a hammer. My wife asked me, how do you know when you're done? I
say when I'm sufficiently satisfied no one would bother with it. I will offer
my service for $4. : )

I don't know that using a hammer will destroy the platters so that the data
can't be recovered. I know for sure that grinding them into pieces prevents any
recovery efforts. Recently, I took 12 drives to be ground up. Took about 20
minutes and cost $60. How long would it take to hammer 12 drives?

On Wed, 16 Sep 2015 11:15:19 -0400, njoracle
wrote:

I don't know that using a hammer will destroy the platters so that the data
can't be recovered. I know for sure that grinding them into pieces prevents any
recovery efforts. Recently, I took 12 drives to be ground up. Took about 20
minutes and cost $60. How long would it take to hammer 12 drives?

I've 1, 3, and 5lb. mallets for a 100lb. table vice. Not long.

On Wed, 16 Sep 2015, njoracle wrote:

Bill wrote:
njoracle wrote:
wrote:
On Thursday, September 10, 2015 at 8:23:52 AM UTC+8, Nil wrote:

Where I live, the city councils have a "verge pickup" twice a year.
You put out junk including e-waste for them to collect.
Generally, scavengers come around first and take them away (even old DDR/AGP
era beige boxes). Although some of them just cherry pick useful parts and
scatter the carcass.

In Monmouth County, NJ some towns now have a electronic recycling "green"
container (it is painted green) where you can dump old computers, TV sets, etc
any day of the week. We also have a company which will take your old drives and
grind them up for $5 a piece and you can stand there and watch them do it. That
is the ultimate disk "wipe". Too bad Hillary had not heard of this :-)

I do that with a hammer. My wife asked me, how do you know when you're done? I
say when I'm sufficiently satisfied no one would bother with it. I will offer
my service for $4. : )

I don't know that using a hammer will destroy the platters so that the data
can't be recovered. I know for sure that grinding them into pieces prevents any
recovery efforts. Recently, I took 12 drives to be ground up. Took about 20
minutes and cost $60. How long would it take to hammer 12 drives?

I take old hard drives apart, for the magnets and the shiny platters.

Having platters around is as good as if they were crushed.

They have lost identity, so nobody knows who they might have belonged to.
There's now way to trace what drive it had been in. There's no
information. Someone isn't going to go to the trouble (and it is a lot of
trouble) to recover data if they don't have some hope of it being
valuable. If they have no idea who owned the platter, they won't make that
effort.

Michael

On Wed, 16 Sep 2015 11:15:19 -0400, njoracle
wrote:

Bill wrote:
njoracle wrote:
wrote:
On Thursday, September 10, 2015 at 8:23:52 AM UTC+8, Nil wrote:

Where I live, the city councils have a "verge pickup" twice a year.
You put out junk including e-waste for them to collect.
Generally, scavengers come around first and take them away (even old DDR/AGP
era beige boxes). Although some of them just cherry pick useful parts and
scatter the carcass.

In Monmouth County, NJ some towns now have a electronic recycling "green"
container (it is painted green) where you can dump old computers, TV sets, etc
any day of the week. We also have a company which will take your old drives and
grind them up for $5 a piece and you can stand there and watch them do it. That
is the ultimate disk "wipe". Too bad Hillary had not heard of this :-)

I do that with a hammer. My wife asked me, how do you know when you're done? I
say when I'm sufficiently satisfied no one would bother with it. I will offer
my service for $4. : )

I don't know that using a hammer will destroy the platters so that the data
can't be recovered. I know for sure that grinding them into pieces prevents any
recovery efforts. Recently, I took 12 drives to be ground up. Took about 20
minutes and cost $60. How long would it take to hammer 12 drives?

I take mine apart, remove the platters and the magnet, keep the magnet
and it's easy to destroy the platters. The case and circuit board are
useless to anyone, so they are disposed of easily (case in the
garbage, circuit board in electronics box until it's full then to a
collection point.) The magnets are worth the effort to remove, very
handy if you need a small, strong magnet.

On Wed, 16 Sep 2015 13:03:48 -0500, Charlie Hoffpauir
wrote:

The magnets are worth the effort to remove, very
handy if you need a small, strong magnet.

Super rare-earth magnets. Reasonable enough on ebay. Bigger ones,
thick as a thumb, half as long, may cost $75ea. Can recharge a guitar
PU with that, with two -- their attract is sufficient to crush bones.

Little bitty ones I got, not bad strength for few bucks for a dozen -
good for rejuvenating kitchen cabinet latches, and whatever else pops
to mind.