Where to recycle computers and disks
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This note will appear in the Technological Tools column sometime in the
spring:
Recycling computers and disks
My department has a computer lab, and about every five years we get money
from the Dean s office to upgrade the computers in it. By that time, the
warranties on the old ones have expired and the campus facility for
repairing computers has often declared them obsolete and will no longer
repair them. In addition, there are caches around the building of hardware
like old green-screen monitors, and some "luggable" computers with 10 MB
hard drives. I have my own collections of old floppy disks, promotional
CDs that I ll never use, and the odd circuit board that I m sure I ll never
use again. There are places to recycle this computer hardware, and
guessing that other ecologists also face the dilemma of how to dispose of
such items responsibly, I ve put together some suggestions.
Where to recycle CDs or floppy disks:
The polycarbonate plastic (containing a layer of aluminum) that is the
primary constituent of CDs can be recycled into other plastic products.
GreenDisk accepts CDs, floppy disks, and magnetic tapes. They also sell
recycled floppy disks.
GreenDisk / Diskette Recycling Program
8124 304th Ave. SE
Preston, WA 98050
Telephone: 800-305-DISK
FAX: 206-222-7736
www.best.com/~dillon/recycle/
Digital Audio Disk and Plastic Recycling are two companies that will
recycle CDs and the plastic jewel cases they come in. Please remove any
cardboard or paper from the cases.
Digital Audio Disk, phone 812-462-8100
Ship to:
Jadcore, c/o DADC Disk Recycling Program
300 N. Fruitridge Ave.
Terre Haute, IN 47803
Plastic Recycling, Inc., phone 317-780-6100
2015 S. Pennsylvania
Indianapolis, IN 46225
Places to donate old computers
The Parents, Educators, and Publishers Web site lists national and local
organizations (organized by state) that distribute or wish to receive used
computers: www.microweb.com/pepsite/Recycle/recycle_index.html. The
National Materials Exchange Network promotes the reuse, recycling, and
recovery of 30 categories of materials, including computer components:
www.earthcycle.com/g/p/earthcycle.
Other sites include:
East-West Education Development Foundation (617-261-6699)
Gifts in Kind International (703-836-2121)
National Cristina Foundation (800-274-7846)
Non-Profit Computing, Inc. (212-759-2368)
On a related note, Mike Kearsley has summarized information about a variety
of places interested in journals you may want to donate. See his message
to ECOLOG-L on 2 December 1996, which you can retrieve as part of that
week s log file. Send the message: get ecolog-l log9612a to the address
listserv@umdd.umd.edu .
David Inouye, di5@umail.umd.edu
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