Getting Set UpGreen Computing

Sometimes, it seems your computer has about the same life span as a goldfish: No sooner have you loaded up your PC with your favorite programs, photos, videos, and music than it's time to upgrade to a more powerful system, with more storage and better features. That can lead to a glut of PCs ready for the landfill - what recycling experts call e-waste (see "E-Waste by the Numbers" below). In 2006, for example, Americans threw away 44 million PCs and TVs, according to the recycling group Earth 911. Not only does this equipment remain undegraded for centuries, but its toxic components - including cadmium from semiconductors and cases, mercury from flat-panel displays, and flame retardants from plastic - can leach into groundwater.

Sadly, many people don't realize that much of this waste and pollution is preventable. These not-so-old computers can go on to lead useful second lives with people who don't need the latest and greatest systems-like primary- and secondary-school students who run undemanding educational software, and nonprofits that do simple word processing and accounting. Here are some easy ways to share your old equipment and keep it out of landfills.

E-wase by the Numbers

Source: Computer TakeBack Campaign

Donate to a National Organization

The best-known national computer charity is the National Cristina Foundation, which acts as matchmaker between you and nearby schools, charities, and not-for-profit public agencies that use your old equipment for education and training. To properly match equipment and recipient, you have to provide basic system specs such as manufacturer and model, processor type, operating system, and amount of memory, and NCF accepts only Pentium III-based PCs and above.

That last requirement may seem odd, but it's not unusual to find charities a little selective about what they take. And why not? With so many used computers floating around, they can afford to favor newer, well-equipped models. So before you start recycling, pull out your old manual or sales invoice (you still have them, right?) and review your computer's components.

Recycles.org acts as a clearinghouse for donated equipment, too. After they list the products you're donating, any of their registered, independently operated charities can request the equipment. Recycles then puts the two of you together by e-mail.

The On It Foundation works with existing organizations, such as Boys and Girls Clubs, to provide computers (along with training and Internet access) to low-income families.

Finally, some local Goodwill Industries, which offer education and training to disadvantaged individuals, accept PCs and components. They train people to refurbish computers for resale and to disassemble non-working equipment into recyclable components.

Donate to a Local Organization

The easiest way to donate your old equipment locally is to go to a nonprofit list aggregator like TechSoup. Type your zip code to get a list of recipients eager to reuse or refurbish your PC and peripherals.

Earth 911 offers a similar list. Specify the type of equipment you want to donate along with your Zip code in the green box at the top of the page. It also offers a calendar of hazardous waste recycling events in your area (in the right-hand column of your search results).

Earth911.org not only lists local recyclers, it also lists local recycling events.

Finally, Computers for Schools directs you to local organizations that refurbish and certify used PCs. These groups then sell the equipment to schools and nonprofits for about one-third the cost of a new system.

Send It Back to Its Maker

Here's a bit of good news: Computer manufacturers are slowly but surely taking responsibility for the full lifecycle - from birth to death - of the PCs they build. Check the Web site of your computer's manufacturer to see if it has a take - back program. Alternatively, you can check the EPA's useful summary or visit eBay's Rethink Initiative page, which reviews the recycling programs of major manufacturers.

Dell and Apple lead the way. Dell recycles any Dell PC for free and pays the shipping costs. They'll also recycle any old PC if you buy your new one from Dell. Apple, too, takes back any computer or monitor and pays for shipping when you buy a new Apple computer or monitor. Sony and Toshiba accept old computers and prepay for shipping, but for their own products only.

HP, on the other hand, charges a fee of $13 to $34 to recycle PCs, printers, and all-in-one devices, while Lenovo's similar program costs $30.

Some retail stores are even getting into the act. Best Buy is running a test program at 117 stores in eight states, which accept up to two electronic devices for recycling per person per day, including big items such as TVs and computers. And Staples promotes a recycling program that can earn you store credit.

Trade It In

If you're at home in the world of eBay and PayPal, you can try trading in your old computer for credit. eBay's EZTradeIn program can turn your gear - desktop, laptop, monitor, server, game console, and so on-into PayPal cash. You register, use the estimator to get an instant quote for your equipment, preprint a shipping label, then send in your device. Once it arrives, experts evaluate its condition and assign it a final value, which is credited to your PayPal account. The amount may not be huge, but you're still doing your part to keep the machine out of the landfill - Dealtree, the company that handles the trade-in program for eBay, resells working products and sells non-working products as-is or recycles, donates, or keeps them for spare parts.

Pass It On

Still stumped on what to do with your old computer? Here are some last - ditch suggestions - anything to keep it out of the dump!

• Sell it on eBay, but make sure it's worth it for you to go through the trouble of shipping a cumbersome and weighty PC or peripheral.
• Sell it or give it away locally on Craigslist.
• Explore the Freecycle Network, a worldwide community of more than half a million people who list stuff they want to give away (no money ever changes hands) in the hopes of keeping junk out of landfills. While effective, Freecycle's a bit complex (it's built around Yahoo! Groups technology and you have to register to participate), but it's worth a peek.
• Put up a flyer at your church or supermarket.

Dump It the Right Way

What if your computer is simply too old or damaged to be donated, resold, or refurbished, and you don't feel like going to the trouble of shipping it off for proper recycling? Deal with it at curbside: call your local sanitation department to find out if and when your town offers e-waste pickup. If they won't come to you, find out if your community schedules drop-off events.

A couple of years from now, as states and municipalities institute all sorts of statutes that require recycling in one form or another, you may find it virtually impossible to throw away electronics. (You can take a look at existing ordinances here.) Why all the fuss? Because if you toss out your computer and monitor with the trash and it goes to your town's landfill, the lead, mercury, and every other toxic component in the equipment can leach into your local water supply and eventually find its way to your tap (see the table, "A Toxic Brew Inside Your Computer").

Electronic devices are full of potentially toxic substances that must be recycled correctly in order to stay out of landfills and, by extension, the ecosystem and our bodies. Here are some examples of harzardous materials in a typical PC.

The Toxic Brew Inside Your Computer

Source: Sillicon Valley Toxics Coalition

How to Avoid Sham Recyclers

Recycling your old computer is the environmentally right thing to do, but if you do it the wrong way, all your good intentions amount to nothing. That's why it's imperative to avoid bogus recyclers who promise to take all the right actions-separate toxic components, keep plastic and metal out of landfills, avoid exporting anything-but then do none of them, instead stripping out valuable metals and selling everything else to junk dealers.

These dealers export e-waste to impoverished areas of Africa or Asia, the world's dumping ground for toxic electronic waste, where laborers, including children, work knee - deep in toxic materials for pennies a day as they strip the junk down to its component parts. According to the Computer TakeBack Campaign, an electronics recycling watchdog group, Americans export the equivalent of 5,126 shipping containers of e-waste every year. Even here at home, prison inmates sometimes do the same kind of work without proper health safeguards.

So whom can you trust? Visit the Computer TakeBack Campaign's site, which maintains an interactive US map to help you find ethical recyclers in your home state. The list was created in conjunction with the Basel Action Network, the best-known worldwide advocacy group for the end of e-waste trafficking. It promotes an "Electronics Recycler's Pledge of True Stewardship," a vow to behave responsibly that recyclers can sign to get onto BAN's list (it currently has fewer than 70 signatories in just 30 states).

How to Wipe Your Hard Drive Clean

No matter which disposal option you choose, be sure to wipe your hard drive clean before you do anything. Your drive knows a lot about you, and anyone who gets their hands on it can learn a lot about you, too. Dragging all your files to the recycle bin isn't nearly enough to erase your presence from the drive-the only thing it does is tell your computer it's OK to overwrite those files. The files still exist, however, and someone with a little technical expertise and a disk utility can recover them. Even reformatting your drive doesn't quite do the job. Reformatting erases file addresses, but the files themselves can still be present, albeit invisible to normal directory searches. Before your computer leaves your home, give it a full-on lobotomy, even if it's destined for a landfill or a recycling center that will tear it to pieces.

To truly wipe your hard drive clean, you have to write meaningless data to it over and over again. Think of it as painting coat after coat of paint on a wall until you can no longer see the colors underneath. The US Defense Department maintains a security standard of six rewrites to wipe a disk, so software programs designed to wipe your disk will typically do that or more.

You can choose from many free utilities to wipe your drive clean, such as Eraser 5.86 or Darik's Boot and Nuke. CNET has a list of free drive-wipers here.

If you own Norton's SystemWorks, you'll find a drive-scrubbing program in it called Wipe Info. Another popular option is the $39.95 DiskDeleter Pro (a free trial is available here).

Of course, there's always the doomsday option-a hammer. Open up your computer, unscrew the hard drive from the chassis (it's not always easy), and demolish it. While that's the ultimate in data security-and, perhaps, satisfaction-it's not necessarily the best thing to do, since you're wasting a usable drive that could potentially find a home in a school or charity.

Get a Tax Break on Your Equipment

Can you take a tax deduction on your donation of an old computer? Absolutely. For individual donors like you, the charitable deduction for contributions of technology products is their current fair-market value. As you may know, however, computer equipment loses its resale value quickly, so the older your computer is, the less you can claim. Ask the organization to which you donate your computer to estimate its current value and give you the appropriate paperwork: you need a written receipt for your tax return. And a bit more good news: you can deduct the shipping costs you incur in donating your PC, again, as long as you keep the receipt.

Developed for PC.com by O'Reilly Media's Missing Manuals division.