Recycling electronics
Recycling electronics. As technology continues to rapidly advance, it’s common to find cupboards and drawers full of old, redundant electronic products. If you can relate, there are lots of ways you can deal with these. Here’s our guide on how to rid your home of wasteful electronic goods.
Do some good
If you have functioning electronic devices such as cassette players, DVD players and old hi-fi systems and TVs, you can always donate them to charity. As long as they are in good working order, they should be accepted. Many charities such as Help the Aged will gladly take your used electronics. It’s always helpful if you manage to salvage those instruction booklets too!
Be creative
Old electronic items shouldn’t always be treated like rubbish. Why not be creative with them? There are many interesting things you can do with old circuit boards, from turning them into pieces of art or even a wall clock – the possibilities are endless. Some particularly fun examples include: turning your old desktop monitor into a funky fish tank or turning your circuit boards into jewellery.
Make some money
If you need to raise some cash, you can always sell stuff online for free. It’s as simple as putting your stuff in a box and receiving a cheque in the post for your old electronics. Websites like Music Magpie will organise a courier to collect your electronic goods within a week. Music Magpie recycles everything, from old DVDs to computers and TVs and even offers mobile phone recycling. This is a great low-hassle option for those who don’t want to go to the trouble of selling their electronics through local listings. You stand to make healthy profit from selling your goods.
Make some space
If many of your old electronic products aren’t working, the best way of disposing of them is to take them to a local council recycling facility. Many consumers think it’s acceptable to throw small electronic products directly in the bin with their regular rubbish, but this highly wasteful. Getting rid of old bulky TVs can be extremely difficult as they can be cumbersome and heavy. So if you need help getting rid of large items, contact your local council who will come and collect and recycle your old electronic goods without a fuss.
Be safe
When throwing out old laptops, PCs or even smartphones, be careful of the risks involved. If the wrong people get hold of your hard drives they can use the information held on them to steal your identity, hack into your email accounts or even get access to your online banking. There are services that dispose of this technology with security in mind. Alternatively remove the hard drives from the devices and keep them. You can buy adapters from electrics stores that allow you to hook them up to your current computer, providing extra storage.
