Making room for your new tech gear

Out for my run this morning I noticed four different homes throwing out "old" PC monitors amongst other tech gear. Sure, I cover a lot of ground running, but actually, today is the first trash pickup day since Christmas. While having my coffee, I noticed this Computerworld article "Out with the old: What to do with your unwanted tech gear". That trash was just what was visible, I'm sure there was probably more tech gear concealed in bags and trash cans. While I don't know if the monitors I saw curbside are desirable, I would bet that most of them are probably in working condition, although granted, maybe not the latest tech-wise. One of the printers didn't look half bad, and as far as the towers and mother boards, who knows?

The bottom line is that this discarded tech gear ends up in our landfills and ultimately in our soil and water. Depending on where you live it may even be illegal to just throw it out! If you want to do the earth a favor, just follow the guidelines mentioned and they'll steer you in the right direction, whether you want to donate, recycle or perhaps even make a buck by selling usable/desirable stuff. If you like Costco, a visit to Costco.com, can help, too. Go to the website, click on "Electronics" then go to "Trade-in & Recycle" and if your equipment has trade in value they'll not only send you a free, pre-paid shipping label to send in the gear, but you'll also get a Costco cash card for the trade-in value! Nice. But perhaps most importantly: as I've mentioned before, make sure you get rid of any personal data you have on your PC or cell phones before you dispose of them in any fashion.