Recycling That Old Desktop Or Laptop?
If you need to get rid of an old desktop or laptop computer, how do you plan on recycling it? In many states, it's illegal to simply throw computers away in the general use dumpsters or leave them on the curb. Even if it isn't illegal, why would you throw away money that could go into your pocket from a recycling center? To understand what you could gain, here are a few computer recycling points.
What's Worth Recycling?
Many components and materials inside computers are recyclable, but some are worth paying attention to more than others. You need to keep an eye out on recycling pay rates for every material, but the cosmetic/protective plastics are low-return materials that hide a lot of other valuable materials beneath.
When you pull away the plastic on desktop computers, you'll encounter either aluminum or steel cases and framework. Aluminum is the most common case material, with steel being used for industrial or ruggedized computers for increased protection.
Aluminum is a big part of the computer, as many attached components are encased in aluminum as well. Another aluminum source is the heat sink, which is a solid metal block with usually razor-thin fins used to distribute heat for later cooling by passive air or a fan.
Copper is another common material, usually found in wires in small amounts. An increasing number of computers use copper heat sinks for increased performance, and if your computer has a video card/graphics card, there's likely a copper or aluminum and copper-fused (not alloy) heat sink attached.
Does your computer have a hard drive? It's important to know that the term hard drive is a specific type of device, but it's used incorrectly to mean all kinds of computer storage drives. The new generation of Solid State Drives (SSDs) are not hard drives, and have fewer recyclable materials because of their simple and streamlined design. Hard drives specifically have rare-earth magnets inside their aluminum cases, which can be pulled away from the arms that read the data platters.
Recycling Computer Parts Efficiently
When you want to recycle your computer, you need to decide if you want to break the computer down into some of the previously mentioned materials for individual recycling or if you'd rather turn the whole computer in for a standardized recycling rate.
The standard rate is based on an average of the materials included in all computers. Not all computers are the same, so you may be losing money if you're recycling a whole gaming computer or other customer computer without knowing about the individual rates. At the same time, taking apart a generic Dell, HP, or other big name computer may be a waste of time without a purpose.
To give yourself purpose, figure out which materials have higher pay rates at the recycling center. You need to either guess at the amount of materials available or measure the materials to figure out if the individual recycling rates add up to more than the standard computer recycling rate. Be sure to factor in the amount of time you have to work on the system for removal.
Contact a curbside recycling collection professional for color-coded bins to store your recycling materials, and for recycling centers delivery information.
Share