Comments on: How can I reuse or recycle a dead laptop?

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 06:49:13 +0000

I’m going to bump this thread with a word of warning for those in the UK looking to recycle laptops. There looks to be a number of small businesses operating as Laptop recyclers who actively buy laptops, whatever their condition from you (ie even faulty ones). Whilst they wil pay out for laptops, they are in breach of the Hazardous waste regulations 2005 and may result in legal action by the UK’s Environment Agency as they’re unregistered waste traders (need to be registered under WEEE permit 23 or a similar exemption). Faulty laptops are hazardous waste and cannot be transported without a hazardous waste consignment notice accompanying the driver, yet these companies actively use couriers to transport hazardous wastes! They’re further in breach of Trading standards globally as they have no trading address on their site. Beware!

By: jim poore

jim poore — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 21:25:16 +0000

Hello all as to the recycling laptops, I am trying to recycle as i can for needy kids if you have one shoot me a email and i will pay shipping to my house and i can wipe info if needed thank you. have a good day

By: WEEE Recycle Electronics

WEEE Recycle Electronics — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 10:57:44 +0000

If your in the North East of England check out http://www.weeerecycleelectronics.co.uk they recycle all electronics including PCs and macs.

By: Martin

Martin — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 21:54:58 +0000

Looking for whole damaged laptops? Where I can find in good price? Qty which I’d like to buy 50-250 per month.
email:econovum@wp.pl

By: recycling electronics

recycling electronics — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 01:54:57 +0000

Gazelle is a great service and they recycle all sorts of electronics. They pay for shipping and also send you a check for your items. I know they’re a US company, so I’m not sure if they offer recycling for UK residents.

By: Laptop Recycling Ltd

Laptop Recycling Ltd — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:39:47 +0000

If your looking for a UK based Laptop Recycling company try http://www.laptop-recycling.com .

Not only will Laptop Recycling Ltd send out a courier FREE of charge they will also give you cash in exchange for your old/broken laptop :)

Try filling out the form for a free quote to see how much you can get!

By: MLB

MLB — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 04:01:56 +0000

You can visit http://www.mylaptopbroke.com . They pay you cash for your broken and unwanted laptops. They recycle them and you get a little $$$ in your pocket!!

By: Steve

Steve — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 20:53:57 +0000

There’s loads of things you can do with an old laptop, such as make it into a Digital Picture Frame, NAS, BitTorrent box etc, but if none of this appeals to you, it’s quite likely that you can make some money on Ebay, if the screen has no dead pixels or problems. Most laptops break when someone sits on them (for example) and breaks the LCD. As you will see from looking at broken laptop auctions on Ebay. Someone will be willing to pay for a broken lappy with a decent screen, especially a Mac, I would have thought.

By: Lesnids3

Lesnids3 — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:23:59 +0000

If you remove the hard drive and install it in an external USB hard drive case, you can still use all the data on the hard drive direct – but I not the programs I think. You can then dispose of the rest of the machine and still hold on to your data knowing it’s not ‘out there’ somewhere. Make sure the external case suits the hard drive you have (IDE or SATA for instance)

By: dandin1

dandin1 — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:30:07 +0000

Old post yes, but it *is* the top hit for “reuse dead laptop” on google. Gratz on your SEO. :p
Selling parts, or the whole thing on ebay, definetely works as there are hundreds of people and shops who take them apart to fix other broken laptops by swapping broken componants from similiar laptops.

The most reusable part is the cold cathode tube that lights up the screen. They’re usually inter-compatible with many other laptops, and are always in hot demand. Don’t forget the transformer to go along with it. Plenty of fun to be had with it too. If the light it dead, you can always use the screen for diffusion in a project. There was some uv thing on hackaday. Ah, here it is: http://www.hackaday.com/2008/01/14/uv-light-table/ .

Things like batteries, hard drives and CD drives can usually be swapped between laptops of the same brand and era. Battery can used for any project. The Hard Drive is IDE compatible, you just need to create a slightly modified cable for it, google it. If it’s dead, don’t forget to salvage the powerful magnet.

The modem isn’t much use as it’s a winmodem, it’s really just a basic analog to digital chip, everything is done through a device driver. I guess if it’s connected through a standard bus you could wire it up to a computer if you found the pinout.

Oh yes! Obviously there’s the RAM, all laptops use the same pinout I beleive.

Note that this is about older laptops, today there’s more goodies inside, and it’s sometimes easier. For example some laptops have Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connect to the USB bus, now *that* is the jackpot.

By: Gulia

Gulia — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:45:09 +0000

I would glue a mirror to the screen, and pretend it is photo booth! Or let a toddler play with it.

By: Ken

Ken — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:55:10 +0000

At Bitz n Bytez you can get your old lappy recycled for free. The sometimes pay you for your old lappy and offer a secure data destruction service.

By: John

John — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 14:47:43 +0000

Hi, You can also use http://www.omcomputer.net or http://www.laptoprecycling.org for recycling a laptop. They also provide free shipping label.

By: Courtney Shearer

Courtney Shearer — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 18:16:34 +0000

If you want to be 100% positive that your information is secure, your best bet is to hand it over to a company that has an electronic recycling program. I work for a non-profit that has started a program, LCI Recycles, and since we work with the government everyday, LCI Recycles upholds stringent security standards. For more information about the services we provide you can visit our website, http://www.lcirecycles.com, or you can contact me directly: 919-596-8277 ext. 175. We have Computer Recycling Drives the last Friday of every Month from 10am-2pm. You could bring it by then! 4500 Emperor Blvd, Durham, NC 27703

By: Games

Games — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 05:56:56 +0000

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By: anna

anna — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 12:39:52 +0000

You can always advertise it for parts at Mac sites, like macosx.com or appleinsider. Often people are looking for keyboards, single keys, .. any part that is broken on theirs. That way someone else will be able to repair theirs. Or you can also try a sell for cheap, or give away for someone in your area. Mac boards are good to look at.

If the hard drive is working, you can always take the Mac apart, and get a separate case for it, that way you will have a nice portable hard drive for cheap.

By: ken

ken — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 13:55:31 +0000

Check out LifeHacker's recent article on giving your laptop new life.

By: Alex Bishop

Alex Bishop — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 21:00:29 +0000

Try selling it on eBay. Broken laptops go for loads of money there. There are plenty of people out there I’m sure who could put it to good use repairing/upgrading their own defunct laptop.

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 16:10:54 +0000

There are some websites where you can give it away for free. Someone might want it for parts or to tinker with.

Some of the giveaway sites are listed here:
http://www.ecojoes.com/i-saved-me-an-old-crt-monitor/

By: Bobbie

Bobbie — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 15:23:32 +0000

I once used old pc boards to make christmas ornaments. I cut the boards down to size, then embellished with fake gems. I drilled a hole in the top to attach a wire so it could be hung.

By: Anne

Anne — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:58:20 +0000

Ecogeek has a great video about this very topic! You can even make a little money while you’re at it. :)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=PLTWgEZ8uyk

By: Tamara Pacillo

Tamara Pacillo — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:40:38 +0000

perhaps give it to your local elementary. when i was in third grade, my class got to take apart an old pc and look at all the parts inside, giving us an idea of how it was made.

By: dotjay

dotjay — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 11:37:39 +0000

I’ve not got much in the way of funky reuse ideas I’m afraid.

As you say, parts may be reusable. Apparently, you can return old Apple products to any Apple store for recycling, but approved Apple repair centres may well be interested in parts. Beyond that, perhaps the circuit boards could be made into funky jewelery, keyrings, etc. It’s unlikely to get much interest on ebay, but that’s an option.

As far as recycling goes, if the laptop is not too old, you could try a recycling service:
http://www.actionaidrecycling.org.uk/laptops.html
http://laptopbitz.co.uk/disposal.htm

Failing that, give the hard drive a proper wiping to remove sensitive data and it’s off down the local recycling centre with the other electronic waste.