Mar 25 2008

Give your old gadgets new life

Think before you toss your broken cell phone in the garbage.

e-waste

Three million tons of electronic waste, like these monitors, end up in landfills every year, according to the EPA.

(Credit: Erica Ogg/CNET News.com)

And your old CRT television or desktop monitor, for that matter. Three million tons of electronic waste go into landfills every year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, and much of what's thrown away is either in good condition or at least fixable.

Many options are available from manufacturers like Hewlett-Packard and Dell and retailers like Staples that voluntarily take back broken-down tech and recycle or refurbish it.

If that's too tough to figure out, there are third-party companies that are dying for your old tech toys. Earth2Tech, Om Malik's green tech blog, has a nice roundup of Web sites that aim to keep your gadgets up and running--or, at the very least, out of landfills.

Sites like FixYa (see the Webware review) and PDAParts.com will give you repair advice, while PartStore.com, BuyMyTronics.com, and SecondRotation, will find loving adoptive homes for retired stuff.

See also: Webware's Elsa Wenzel suggests similar sites.

 

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Add a Comment (Log in or register) 1 comment (Page 1 of 1)
Send old electronics in the mail
by BenFlavoredCandy March 27, 2008 6:24 AM PDT
Clover Technologies Group is teaming up with USPS to pay for postage for consumers to send old electronics to the company for recycling. Only in 10 major cities, but worth checking out: http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55749
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