I have a couple of old laptops lying around, one is ancient and the other is not so old but is well and truly broken beyond reasonable repair. The thing is I have no idea what to do with them - you can't just chuck them, I've checked with my local authority and there are no local recycling centres for them, I've searched online for companies that will take them but pretty much all the ones I've found only deal with businesses looking to shift end of life machines and will only take working PCs with a half decent minimum spec. So, how the hell am I supposed to get rid of these responsibly? I sure as hell don't want to be hanging on to them any longer...
Some charities take them even if they are broken, I think I may have just put mine in the bin (it was missing a display and battery anyway) :/
Even if your just looking to get rid - do a ebay sale and donate 100% of taking to charity. You would have to check how much ebay take off you etc but am sure you could work it so your not out of pocket, you get rid of the laptop and a charity benefits from your kindness.
Take them to the dump and put them in the relevant electrical box/container. Putting them on ebay just means hassle imo.
Look down the street and see if anyone's got a skip outside, wait for the cover of darkness and go stealth operation. Failing that I just skip it down the local dump.
I would generally agree with tip but OP stated - 'I've checked with my local authority and there are no local recycling centres for them' I'm lucky as my local tip has one and working for an IT company I can always get stuff collected from work
Well, my local tip is only a couple of miles away but they don't specifically state they take waste electronics/computers. I could always take them down anyway and ask I suppose.
http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/business/topics/waste/32084.aspx Householders can: ask the retailer if they'll take products back take old appliances to their local civic amenity site arrange for their local authority to collect the equipment (some local authorities provide a free collection service and others charge) arrange for an electrical retailer delivering new equipment to take away the old appliance I am 99% sure your local recycling centre MUST take all non-enterprise electric items at no additional cost.
As already mentioned, list them as spares / repairs on the bay. No hassle - if you clearly point out that they are broken and only useful for spares. If the CoA is intact and legible, mark it as a selling point. I transplanted the components from a shattered laptop chassis into a replacement that had a CoA, bought on ebay for £15. Being the same make and model - the CoA worked just fine with an OS recovery.
I usually just bring my stuff to work and chuck it in the disposal room... But then I guess that's the perks of working in IT. Otherwise I'd goto the tip, mine has a bit for electronics (TVs, etc)
This is something ive been debating but im aways sceptical about it as the hardrives still contain data even after being formatted. Think ill skip them after removing the HDDs and burning them haha.
I hate dropping stuff at the skip esp after the recent doc on tv showing the stuff ending up in Nigeria. I'd go charity shop
reminds me of those bags for clothes - they resell the clothes and doanate less than 10% of the money to the nominated charity - the other 90% is for ` wages` - i give the clothes to the lcoal scouts and guides when they want donations , at least they get all the money for the young people.
