Best Way to Get Rid of Old Computers

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FrayedEnds
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Re: Best Way to Get Rid of Old Computers

Post by FrayedEnds » July 7th, 2016, 10:42 am

turf_toes wrote:Many folks don't realize it, but copy machines have disc drives too. If you have a multi feature printer, that might be an even bigger concern.

I once saw a 60 minutes episode where they purchased 2nd-hand printer/copiers (previously used at hospitals).

They were able to recover thousands of records involving everything from credit card information to insurance and actual patient records.

So be sure to trash that old printer/copier while you are at it.


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Re: Best Way to Get Rid of Old Computers

Post by dogfan1980 » July 10th, 2016, 10:57 pm

Abyss wrote:Lol, the gold in your computer is worthless to you, but when you melt down 50,000 at a time it becomes worthwhile.

Trash companies used to sell off their landfills to make parks and golf courses, but are no longer doing so. The technology is slowly coming along that they will be able to pull the trash back out of the ground, separate out of it what is worth money very efficiently, and use the rest to create power for communities


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rarely on this site is a topic discussed where I have specific expertise. This one is it for sure.

To Andy's point earlier, the general fear in recycling is it all ends up in SE Asia or Africa. There are reliable companies that perform serialized destruction of assets, with zero-landfill policies, managing the entire down stream process. I won't mention where I work, but we're one of the largest in the world. over 75,000,000 pounds of ewaste processed a year. Additionally, at the corporate and government level, there are two main certifying bodies(one growing, one declining) which reputable e-cyclers coordinate with for audits, process management, downstream audits, and the like.

The old way of doing it, until the last 3 years, would be to demanfacture in place, break apart by commodity type and then send off to smelters. even plastics. current technology doesn't have the same quantity of precious materials they once did, and plastics cost more to process than they are worth, given oil prices. even at the scale we do it, the recycling process and materials barely cover the costs to process it.

as to wiping drives, there's now network level encryption, software level encryption, hardware level encryption, at the very basic level. encryption is getting pretty fricking impressive.

as to securing data in the drive, you don't have to worry about the data recovery specialists utilizing their next level techniques to recover your drive. only chance someone would care to see what's on it is if it's in operating shape and easily found. take a hammer, a drill and go to town on it. toss it in the recycling bin and call it a day.

You don't own a magnet strong enough to degauss it, most likely.

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Re: Best Way to Get Rid of Old Computers

Post by Abyss » July 25th, 2016, 3:18 pm

dogfan1980 wrote:
Abyss wrote:Lol, the gold in your computer is worthless to you, but when you melt down 50,000 at a time it becomes worthwhile.

Trash companies used to sell off their landfills to make parks and golf courses, but are no longer doing so. The technology is slowly coming along that they will be able to pull the trash back out of the ground, separate out of it what is worth money very efficiently, and use the rest to create power for communities


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rarely on this site is a topic discussed where I have specific expertise. This one is it for sure.

To Andy's point earlier, the general fear in recycling is it all ends up in SE Asia or Africa. There are reliable companies that perform serialized destruction of assets, with zero-landfill policies, managing the entire down stream process. I won't mention where I work, but we're one of the largest in the world. over 75,000,000 pounds of ewaste processed a year. Additionally, at the corporate and government level, there are two main certifying bodies(one growing, one declining) which reputable e-cyclers coordinate with for audits, process management, downstream audits, and the like.

The old way of doing it, until the last 3 years, would be to demanfacture in place, break apart by commodity type and then send off to smelters. even plastics. current technology doesn't have the same quantity of precious materials they once did, and plastics cost more to process than they are worth, given oil prices. even at the scale we do it, the recycling process and materials barely cover the costs to process it.

as to wiping drives, there's now network level encryption, software level encryption, hardware level encryption, at the very basic level. encryption is getting pretty fricking impressive.

as to securing data in the drive, you don't have to worry about the data recovery specialists utilizing their next level techniques to recover your drive. only chance someone would care to see what's on it is if it's in operating shape and easily found. take a hammer, a drill and go to town on it. toss it in the recycling bin and call it a day.

You don't own a magnet strong enough to degauss it, most likely.
That's interesting that you say that their isn't enough precious metals in electronics anymore to be worth it. I'm in the recycling business for a trash hauler and were in the same boat. For the most part, trash companies barely break even on recycling and definitely don't make enough money to make recycling worth it to them. The only reason is because it's mandated by law. In the last 2 years we've had it implemented that we are no longer allowed to take electronics. If it's not for the resources to be gained from them, I wonder why we aren't allowed to take them as trash any longer.


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