I’ve been accumulating old electronics for about a decade now and I really need to safely dispose of them at this point. I know some cities have drop off spots for recycling, but the one near me charges a fee and appears to cater to business clients. Obviously I’m against tossing them in the bin. It’s small things, like an old iPod touch, Bluetooth speaker etc. What do you all do with your old Ewaste?
Edit: Whew. I’m tired after a long day of…you guessed it…work. Great suggestions in this thread. Thanks y’all!
I’m a big fan of taking old electroics, taking them apart, and then organizing them neatly in a frame, like this example.
If you are going to keep electronics however, I definitely recommend removing the battery and recycling it. Phones aren’t fire hazards but batteries definitely are, especially the ones in the old iPods.
You may be able to find scrapping places around you (e.g. metal scrappers) - my local scrapping place also takes circuit boards. Which gets me ~$1/lb or so. But they also just take misc. electronics for like $0.10/lb, phones are like $5/lb, etc. there’s prices for it all. Best part is, this way you can actually get paid for your trash, instead of doing it the other way around.
I keep a few old phones as spares but if I don’t use them, they get recycled. I have a ton of electronics that aren’t used, but could still be for the right project. It’s nice to have parts whenever you need them.
If you have old batteries or something like a UPS that is mostly a battery you can (and should) take it to a battery recycling center. A general recycling center near me does that, but also some stores like Best Buy will collect and recycle them too. Years ago I dropped off a non-functioning UPS there and it was super simple. I would have felt terrible throwing that away in the trash.
Recently I’ve found a place called ‘Free Geek’ that is pretty much a tech-specific thrift shop/non-profit aiming to help eliminate digital divides.
When I first started learning I would go to a lot of second hand stores and just buy old systems to take them apart and see what could be made for a few bucks each, now that I have plenty of my own it’s time to give back to such places.
Free Geek is awesome, but they’re only in a few cities, I know about the ones in Minneapolis and Portland.
