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PSA: Best Buy is required to recycle your old electronics for FREE

Climber

Climber

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 13, 2004
Location
Clovis/Fresno
Moto(s)
01 Goldwing GL1800
Name
Brett
I recently moved and was wondering wtf I was going to do with my old TV's.

As it turns out, Best Buy, who collects disposal fees on every electronics item sold is required to recycle your old electronics for FREE.

I've dropped off as many as 5 items at a time, they say 2-3.

Thought other people would want to know. It's a great way to get rid of those old TV's, monitors and other things that other places charge you to dispose of.
 
Good to know, thanks. I always wondered about that fee and what it was used for.

Not to thread jack... if in Santa Cruz area, we have a great organization called Grey Bears. They recycle, repair, and have a thrift store. The proceeds all go to helping seniors and the community.

https://www.greybears.org/
 
Ive got a few old laptops that I was paranoid about throwing out. Thinking someone could steel my tax return info and ID. Probably wouldn't trust the minimum wage workers at BB either though.
 
Blankpage said:
Ive got a few old laptops that I was paranoid about throwing out. Thinking someone could steel my tax return info and ID. Probably wouldn't trust the minimum wage workers at BB either though.
Click to expand...

I disassemble hard drives, destroying the platters before recycling the electronics. For ssd drives there are other solutions.
 
lots of paint stores also take unwanted latex paint because of similar mandatory fees. free of charge, call ahead though because their containers might be full (similar to oil recycling at auto parts stores)

Blankpage said:
Ive got a few old laptops that I was paranoid about throwing out. Thinking someone could steel my tax return info and ID. Probably wouldn't trust the minimum wage workers at BB either though.
Click to expand...

remove the hard drive and smash it with a hammer a few times. put it all in a bag and drop off.

accessing the hard drive on a laptop is usually pretty easy, an access cover on the bottom, a handful of screws and SMASH SMASH
 
You can always take older drives and put them in USB enclosures and use them as backups for current PCs or laptops. Or you can put them in the USB enclosure and use disk scrubber/shredder software on them to completely wipe them then get rid of them using the method of our choice.
 
Blankpage said:
Ive got a few old laptops that I was paranoid about throwing out. Thinking someone could steel my tax return info and ID. Probably wouldn't trust the minimum wage workers at BB either though.
Click to expand...

the hard drive is easy to access on like 99% of laptops.


Expose it and Put a magnet on it.
 
mikev said:
the hard drive is easy to access on like 99% of laptops.


Expose it and Put a magnet on it.
Click to expand...

giphy.gif
 
davidji said:
I disassemble hard drives, destroying the platters before recycling the electronics. For ssd drives there are other solutions.
Click to expand...

Drilling a couple of holes in a HDD is a lot less work than disassembling and very effective.
 
Blankpage said:
Ive got a few old laptops that I was paranoid about throwing out. Thinking someone could steel my tax return info and ID. Probably wouldn't trust the minimum wage workers at BB either though.
Click to expand...

I use DBAN to wipe the hard drive. I suppose it's possible to recover data after every sector has been overwritten like three times with random 1's and 0's but good luck with that.
 
fraz said:
Good to know, thanks. I always wondered about that fee and what it was used for.

Not to thread jack... if in Santa Cruz area, we have a great organization called Grey Bears. They recycle, repair, and have a thrift store. The proceeds all go to helping seniors and the community.

https://www.greybears.org/
Click to expand...

that sounds like the other bear group :x
 
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