Back in January, we ran a story on Interconnection down near Gasworks, who refurbish old computers and provide them to low income communities around the world. One bit of lameness covered was that the state law intended to encourage recycling actually required that donated computers be melted down for materials rather than refurbished unless they were in full working order when donated (howdy, hardware manufacturer lobbyists!).
Well, Andrew tipped us off to a KPLU story announcing that’s finally changed. So, if you’ve got an old computer that you’re not using, even if it’s not working, go ahead and drop it off at Interconnection. They’ll fix it up and ship it off to someone who doesn’t really care whether it’s not a P4-X1000 G4 with a gajillion megahectares of RAM, they’ll just be glad they have access to the Internet (and Wallyhood).
Howdy, hardware manufacturer lobbyists!
I’ve got a computer with one bad hard drive and one good one. It’s old and ready for a new purpose. I’ve got personal information on there though, that I can’t access because I can’t boot it up.
Is melt-down recylcing my best option, or is there a way to reliably pernamently wipe the old data before donating?
(Remember, I can’t boot it up.)
They will wipe your drive for you. They have a variety of options on how this happens, but their minimum option conforms to Department of Defense standards. Pretty sure there is a “send hard drive on one-way rocket to the heart of the sun” option, as well.
Excellent! I’ve got an old PC and two monitors that I’ll drop off there this week. Thanks for posting the info.
At InterConnection.org we now offer a new service of destroying your hard drive for $10 using our new on site ‘hard drive crusher’ – you can even press the ‘red’ destroy button yourself! fun for all the family 😉 The reminds head off to the recycler.
Our very own local boy – Director & Founder Charles Brennick went to Olympia to witness the signing in of the amendment (HB 1522) into Law by Governor Christine Gregoire check our http://www.interconnection.org for photo.
“InterConnection supporters worked hard to ensure the passing of the law. We are very pleased it passed since it ensures more computers will get reused.” Charles Brennick