Recycle your PC

Posted on 4 Jul 2006 at 13:00

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If you can't find a local user for your PC, then donate it to one of the many not-for-profit organisations engaged in refurbishing old computers and selling them to help local and overseas charities. Some even send equipment directly to Third World countries where users won't turn up their noses at a PC just because it can't run Windows XP. Reputable organisations in the field promise to securely blank hard disks in line with the regulations in the Data Protection Act, and to rebuild and test PCs before sending them out.

Most charities have no use for really old or underpowered machines - they're looking for at least a 500MHz processor and 10GB hard disk. Most of them will also accept monitors without an accompanying system unit. You'll have to deliver the PC to the charity yourself, or pay somebody to do it for you. To make it easier to donate equipment, some of the larger charities have arrangements with door-to-door courier services able to collect bulky and heavy items. Computer Aid International, for example, will send a courier to pick up boxed equipment for just £9. Call them on 0207 281 0091 or visit their website at www.computer-aid.org.

Salvaging and recycling

You paid good money for your PC and it may be that you don't want to give it away for nothing, but if you have no use for it and nobody wants to buy it as a complete system, then you should consider dismantling it yourself and selling it as spares.

Monitors can be sold locally for £10 to £25 through classified ads in the free local press, and many of the lighter items from inside the system unit will fit into a padded envelope and can be sold on eBay. Items that find ready buyers are processors, hard disks, memory modules and optical drives. Graphics cards with built-in TV tuners sell easily, but otherwise can be hard to shift.

If you're really ambitious, you can extract the power supply and sell that, but the case itself will be too expensive to send and is unlikely to fetch more than a few quid anyway. Motherboards complete with a processor and memory are easier to sell than without.

If the hard disk in your old PC is of a reasonable capacity (say 20GB or more), it's worth putting it into an external USB2 enclosure and turning it into a backup drive. Enclosures cost £20 or less, and come complete with all the necessary cables, connectors and a power supply. The only tool you need is a small screwdriver, and if your new PC is running Windows XP the USB drive will work without any drivers or configuration. Just plug it into a spare USB port. See our hard disk group test in issue 180 for more details on these.

When it comes to disposing of what's left of your PC, not every recycling company will be willing to help as some only handle bulk consignments from business customers. Visit www.wasteonline.org.uk for a list of local recyclers who deal with private customers, or take your PC to a local council recycling site. Many of these have dedicated skips for electrical and IT equipment, and with any luck, your old PC will be at least partially recycled rather than dumped straight into landfill.

This is due to change when the EU's Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment directive (WEEE) kicks in. It was supposed to come into force in August 2005, but was delayed due to problems of implementation. When it does, new electrical equipment will be tagged with a crossed-out wheelie bin symbol, signifying that it can be handed in for recycling at the same time as purchasing new equipment. The manufacturer will be responsible for the cost of recycling it.