Kidsumers

Taking Inventory of the Unused Electronics

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Sheri

In a house full of tech loving people we have collected our share of electronics. Over time they have become outdated or just stopped working and started collecting dust in my house. I know our home is like many others. Each year with back to school shopping, new computers, tablets and other electronics are added to households, leaving even more old electronics in the “no longer needed” pile. This is a great time to reflect on what we have bought, and consider the clutter that is kept and also to look at the Ontario Electronic Stewardship

Many electronics contain valuable materials such as gold, copper and other rare metals. Recycling your electronics helps ensure fewer of these materials are taken out of the earth. That is something that I hadn’t really thought about before, and it makes me wonder what is inside my unused electronics. I have computers that are out of date and I know that they can be refurbished and used for families who can’t afford to buy new. I just haven’t got around to having the information removed from them so I can do that. It is good to know there are other options in case I don’t ever get around to removing the information. I also have cell phones, cameras, printers and tablets that don’t work or are no longer used. I finally know what to do with them all!

I'm embarrassed to say this is just a small sampling of the unused electronics in our house.
I’m embarrassed to say this is just a small sampling of the unused electronics in our house.

This is a great opportunity to search the house for all of the old electronics and take an inventory of everything we’re sitting on, including all the rare metals. It’s a good time for other families to do it too! You can then visit RecycleYourElectronics.ca to find out where to drop it all off. It will be good to make some space in the house and do some good for the environment.

Recycling your end of life electronics with Ontario Electronic Stewardship is great for the environment. It means that fewer old televisions, computers, phones and other devices end up in our landfills. It also means valuable materials like cooper and gold can be reclaimed and used for new products.

What old electronics do you have sitting around the house?

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Comments

15 responses to “Taking Inventory of the Unused Electronics”

  1. Jeannie Avatar
    Jeannie

    Yes! It’s important to dispose or donate unused electronics properly!! We always take our broken or unused electronics to a return it depot that specializes in recycling and disposing electronics.

    Reply
  2. Soozle Avatar
    Soozle

    Great post! I have recycled old computers (after destroying the hard drive for MY security purposes!!) but haven’t thought to do the same with old cell phones!

    Reply
    1. Elwood Jones Avatar
      Elwood Jones

      I frequently obtain older computers thru donations from friends and acquaintances who know I recycle old computers to give to kids in need. I do not destroy any hard drives unless the drives themselves have quit. Destroying the Hard drive makes the Computer virtually useless for my purposes. I use a program called “Dariks Boot and Nuke” to securely over write the Drive so it can be used again in reasonable safety for the previous owner and then reinstall the version of OS that was previously on the Computer or Update if I have a legal copy of a Microsoft OS I can use or I will install Ubuntu Linux on it. This way I can give someone a working Computer.

      Reply
  3. DARLENE W Avatar
    DARLENE W

    We always recycle our electronics, when the schools have a recycling drive we contribute

    Reply
  4. Jodi Mitrovic Avatar
    Jodi Mitrovic

    I always recycle our old electronics but I have kept a few. I think it will be fun to pull them out one day and show the kids what we used to use 🙂

    Reply
  5. Elva Roberts Avatar
    Elva Roberts

    Yes; I think it is important to remove old electronics and have them taken to a proper disposal facility, which we are lucky to have. We have old computers and will have to do this sometime soon.

    Reply
  6. Anne Taylor Avatar
    Anne Taylor

    We have alot of old electronics. I think its time for us to do this!

    Reply
  7. Suzie M Avatar
    Suzie M

    there are always old electronics around & I always make sure they go t a disposal site

    Reply
  8. DARLENE W Avatar
    DARLENE W

    Just remember that the hard drive on your computer contains all your personal information, best to take it out and destroy it

    Reply
    1. Elwood Jones Avatar
      Elwood Jones

      Why not securely overwrite the Hard Drive using a free program like” Dariks Boot and Nuke” or another similar free program (there are several) and donate a working Computer to someone. These free programs do an A-1 job. I’ve tried to recover info after using Dariks and was unsuccessful. I suppose a high end Lab might be able to pull “something” off such an overwritten drive but not without a lot of time and expense and you would just not be worth it to them unless you are an International spy or something!

      Reply
  9. Judy Cowan Avatar
    Judy Cowan

    We did a clean out/recycle of old electronics last spring and I was amazed at how many old electronics we had laying around and not being used.

    Reply
  10. Stephanie LaPlante Avatar
    Stephanie LaPlante

    This is really good to know! Thanks for sharing. We definitely have stuff to recycle, like ancient laptops.

    Reply
  11. loriag Avatar
    loriag

    We have a few to recycle that is for sure.

    Reply
  12. vik Avatar
    vik

    HA…recycling electronics is another scam..very few..less than a percentage of those companies actually do the right thing..even the govt for instance sells recycled electronics to bidders ( so called recycling companies ) these companies aren’t audited and they are sent to third world countries.. to either be sold for profit or mined for metals.

    the worst part is the mining, where it is done mostly by children. I have been to such places and seen them. Thanks to certain ontario companies i was gonna invest in.

    The same concept applies to all those blue boxes you find in the parking lots 🙂

    for example.

    a used iPhone 4 which consumers recycle here for free most of the time. I have seen in Sri Lanka selling for 40,000 rupees.

    there are many of parameters involved here :).

    Cheers

    Reply
  13. kathy downey Avatar
    kathy downey

    We definitely have stuff to recycle and we should get at it!

    Reply

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