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With today’s trip to Best Buy to take advantage of their recycling program I have completely done away with all my old computers, cases, and monitors. While I was able to give some away, most of it was dropped off at Best Buy where they (in Michigan) accept up to seven hard drive-less items per day (including CRTs) at zero cost.
Despite not having used some of this equipment in over ten years (such as the Dell Dimension XPS P90 pictured above, the first computer that I ever bought for myself) I can’t help but feel like I’ve given up something important. These are (were?) tools that I’d spent tens of thousands of hours building, using, and maintaining. Still, it’s just old stuff, and getting rid of it is for the best. I was not using this equipment and now instead of being clutter it’s being disposed of properly. Also, it’s probably best for me to dispose of this stuff now instead of in a few years when electronics recycling might not be so accessible or affordable.
I came across this video in my Twitter stream this morning
http://vimeo.com/17885767
I know a lot of electronics are “recycled” by grinding them down for their metals, but it’s pretty crap if we’re sending this stuff to foreign countries for “processing”. We’ll be screwed when they finally catch up and start making their own toxic electronic devices.
I mean, there’s thousands of jobless people in our own countries who could do it instead.
I wonder if the Chinese workers in the Foxconn factory have stopped killing themselves yet.