Practical recycling for green computing

Handing on a PC
Just because a PC no longer meets your needs doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be perfect for somebody else. Used computer equipment does not hold its value well and is expensive to transport, but if it’s not too out-of-date it might be possible to sell it through an ad in the local paper to somebody able to collect it.

Even if a system has little or no cash value there may be a friend, family member, school or charitable organisation able to make use of it. PCs well past their prime are still viable for word processing, email and browsing the web.

However, bear in mind that if you sell or give away a working PC and leave the software on it, you must also hand over the manuals and discs. You’ll be breaking the law if you use the software on another PC.

If you don’t know anyone who needs an old computer, you can place a free ad on the Donate a PC website and give it to a good cause willing to collect it.

But if the PC is of a reasonable specification, which currently means one with at least a Pentium III processor and a hard disk of 6GB or larger, you could donate it to Computer Aid International who will blank your data, refurbish the hardware and ensure the computer is put to good use in the developing world. More than 70,000 computers have been recycled in this way.

Protect your privacy
Computer Aid International has state-of-the-art facilities for deleting hard disks to prevent anybody reconstructing deleted personal data, but if you dispose of a computer, it’s up to you to erase any sensitive material. Simply deleting files is not enough.

Disks need to be completely overwritten with meaningless patterns of data to prevent old files being recovered. You can do this within Windows using a free downloadable program called Eraser.  

If you’re completely scrapping a hard disk and want to remove everything from it, including Windows and all the software, the easiest method is with Darik’s Nuke and Boot. This is a free program that runs from a floppy disk or a recordable CD and can be downloaded from http://dban.sourceforge.net.

Whichever method you use, be sure to make copies or notes of everything you’re likely to need on your new PC such as personal data files, passwords, address books and internet favourites before you blank the hard disk.

If your PC is too decrepit to pass on, take it to your local council-run recycling centre and don’t put it in the landfill skip. It was encouraging to find in our survey that nine out of 10 people said they would be happy to take unwanted electrical goods to a local recyling centre.

The space available for landfill is finite and has to be managed for years to come, and there is a danger of toxic materials leaking into the water supply. All councils have recycling facilities for TVs and monitors, and many also have them for PCs – check www.direct.gov.uk/homeandcommunity for details of your local facilities. If yours doesn’t, at least make sure the PC goes into the metal recycling skip.