I once watched someone walk out of the back of a local downtown business and throw a computer in a dumpster; monitor, keyboard, mouse and all. As highly dignified and refined as I am, I have been known to occasionally insert my entire body into large trash receptacles and rescue such discarded items.
It may not have been a pretty picture, but the tossed computer somehow found its way into the back seat of my car.
One of my hobbies is collecting and restoring old computer junk, although I'm becoming pickier as my collection grows. Over the years, my garage has been transformed into a miniature computer salvage yard, full of useful parts that come in handy from time to time. One man's trash is another man's treasure, as they say. I expected my haul from the dumpster to provide, at best, a few useful parts.
Back at my shop I plugged in the discarded computer system, pushed the power button and lo and behold, it fired right up. There I was, looking at an old installation of Windows, Version 3.1. Cool! However, I soon noticed an icon on the desktop that was decidedly not cool. The icon said, "Quickbooks."
"No way," I thought, as I double-clicked the icon and loaded up a random Quickbooks file. "Uh-oh: way," I muttered as I found myself staring at a complete set of financial statements from the afore-mentioned downtown business; tax return information, Social Security numbers, bank statements, customer purchases complete with credit card numbers, the works. My question for the business owner, whom I happened to be friends with, was, "Would you like me to erase the hard drive that you threw into the dumpster?"
Unlike old automobiles, which you might still be able to drive around town, perfectly functional computers can actually become worthless to their owners. Sure, the system may still turn on and work just as well as the day that it was bought, but if it's now too slow to run modern programs and is incapable of being secured for Internet usage, it has become a piece of junk.
Throwing such junk into a dumpster, though, is not a good idea. You may already know electronics waste can be bad for the environment. In addition, you may be throwing away something that someone else could use.
A number of options exist for folks needing to dispose of an old computer. Remember to clean up the hard drive first, though (read the article on my website, "Delete your files or give them away"). You don't want your private information falling into the wrong hands. Once you've sanitized your computer, consider the following:
1. Give it to someone like me. If it's new enough, it might still have some useable parts, or, I can convert it to a useable computer and give it to the charity Bridges, and they will give it to school kids. Otherwise, I'll add it to my computer salvage yard. If it's obscure enough, I'll make it part of my personal antique computer museum; I'd love to get my hands on an old Osborne, Apple Lisa or Commodore PET machine. I don't need any more Windows 95/98/2000/XP computers, though.
2. Sell it on eBay or Craigslist. I've unloaded some clunkers this way, but eBay can be a bit of a hassle, as you have to come up with proper shipping boxes and packing materials in order to guarantee that the computer arrives safely on the buyer's doorstep. Then, you have to go to the Post Office or UPS, or make arrangements for someone to pick up your package. Shipping complete systems is expensive. Selling locally on Craigslist is pretty easy, though.
3. Donate your old computer to a worthy charity. Goodwill and Salvation Army can be good options. Most school systems, however, are already buried under mountains of old computer junk; they need new stuff. My favorite charity for this purpose is the American military veterans group called AMVETS. Not only do they represent a good cause, but they will also pick up your old computer for free. Visit www.amvets.org, click the big red "Donate" button and find the blue "Schedule a Thrift Store Pickup" button for more information.
4. Many cities, like Oklahoma City and Norman, have annual community recycling events that cover old electronics. Check with your city's Public Works department to find out about "eWaste" recycling events in your area.
Dave Moore, CISSP, has been fixing computers in Oklahoma since 1984. Founder of the non-profit Internet Safety Group Ltd, he also teaches Internet safety community training workshops. He can be reached at 405-919-9901 or internetsafetygroup.org
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