Recycling customers old computers ?

[NYJimbo]

We run a small repair shop and often have customers who talk about their old machines and what to do with them.

Do any of you take in old or dead computers and do any kind of recycling ?. I know many people would love to dump their old machines but I dont know if there is some kind of formal process for handling this. Do you offer any payment or credit for them?. What do you do with the machines when you get them ?. I imagine I could cannibalize the boxes for stuff and/or rebuild them and offer them to poor/less fortunate people or something.

Is this something worth promoting via in-store ads or some other local advertisements ?

If anyone who is doing this can give a few tips or ideas I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks

 

[just_a_nobody]

I think it would be worth promoting. However, the recycling regulations, for computer parts is different in every area, so you will want to check them in your area. However, if you charge a fee, you still save the customer a trip to the dump, so you're doing them a favor, just be sure to charge what the cost of disposal will be. Also, you could strip the good parts off the machines and sell them on ebay.

 

[georgenoise]

I have a couple of different options I use for recycling. Depending on the condition of the computer I will either revamp the unit and donate it to a local school or shelter, red cross, goodwill, someones grandparents. It all depends on the quality of the computer.

Some computers I scrap for spare parts and the rest goes in a junk pile. Once there is enough junk parts laying around I utilize my local Office Depot. They have "Tech Recycling Boxes" that you can fill up with whatever fits. If I remember it runs $5, $10, $15 for the boxes depending on the size. I just buy a few of the $15 ones and fill them with motherboards, drives, ram, power supplies, etc... and bring them back. The cases are harder to dump, I use to have a local recycling place that would take them but have since gone out of business. Monitors I usually donate to schools by themselves.

 

[14049752]

There are actually a lot of places that offer electronics recycling for free. I use one that only charges for televisions, any computer components or monitors are free. Do a google search, I'm sure there are plenty around.