Equipment recycling

In all my collecting of gadgets and toys, I've built up a collection of unused electronics. Thank god for eBay as I'm usually able to get rid of working electronics without too much trouble (in fact I think Ebay has created an entire new model for gadget upgrading and trickle down flow as us gadgeteers sell our gadgets as soon as the next gadget comes out).

Of course, I also have stuff that just isn't worth selling on eBay -- usually because it is broken or the shipping cost is just too high when compared to the value of the item. This is especially the case for old computer monitors.

Well, today, I looked around the house and found 5 monitors ranging in size from 13 inch to 21 inch (the 21 inch Viewsonic was dead, the others work, but were old and unused), a 27 inch Sony television, and a dead APC rack mount UPS (when I called APC about it like a year ago, they said that "it gave its life to protect all the equipment behind it"... I thought that was a lame way of saying "we don't want to pay to fix it, you're on your own").

A quick search for electronic recycling found E Tech Recycling which, interestingly has two offices in the U.S. -- One in Hillsboro, OR (where my work office is) and one in Chantilly, VA (close to where I live). We loaded the stuff into my wife's car (it was raining and I didn't think it would be wise to put electronics into the back of my pickup truck) and drove off to the local E Tech.

They helped unload the car, and charged me $65 -- which, I think, was a very good deal for everyone.

Tags : electronics / recycling / green / eBay / Viewsonic / APC