For an excellent resource for connecting people who have usable items
they don't want with people who would like to have them, check out
www.freecycle.org. It's set up as a way to keep things out of
landfills, when possible.

Jo Ann

Beloved Leader wrote:
Michael Black wrote:

And as electronic recycling becomes common place, I'm not fully conviced
the right decisions will be made. I'd love to drop off some junk (like
that I've pulled from the garbage in the first place) and be able to claim
something someone else has tossed, that interests me or can finish off
something I have (like claim a hard drive to go in that computer I brought
home that had none). But that can't happen, because any useful items,
at least here, are sold on the used market to help finance the collection.

Alexandria, Virginia, 50 miles to the southwest of the original poster,
prefers that "obsolete" computer equipment be turned in at the toxic
waste dump (as I call it), which is open one day per week. They have a
huge dumpster, open so that you can walk in, that slowly fills with
CPUs, printers, and monitors. In addition, people throw in old stereo
equipment and TV sets. When the coast is clear and no one is looking,
sometimes I help myself to an occasional goody. Usually I can recover a
toner cartridge or a needed cable. If I saw a nice open reel tape deck,
I'd try as hard as I could to grab it and run.

The woman who supervises the dump takes a dim view of this personal
recycling. She yells at me when she sees me in there, so I've had to
stop helping myself to the swag. It's a shame, too, as there is a
mountain of decent stuff that ought to be free for the taking.

I have seen one of those full dumpsters being hauled away. It was an
absolute heap of electronics, all headed off for destruction.