Thanks to our avid consumerism, the ever-increasing speed of technological development and the art of planned obsolescence – a tactic employed beautifully by computer manufacturers – PCs have never gone out of fashion or function faster. But what should you do with the relics that you leave behind. Should an old computer be thrown on the scrapheap; tossed into landfill with the rest of your rubbish?
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Recycle your old PC
The answer is often to recycle your old computer. Electronic goods shouldn’t be treated the same as household refuse due to the poisonous chemicals housed within the hardware. There are no shortage of places to get your PCs recycled and a quick Google of your local area should bring up the nearest place to recycle.
Help a local charity
Donating your PC to charity or repurposing it for your children are other options available to you if you believe there is still some life in the old hardware yet. Often people are concerned about how an old computer might be used and sensitive information accessed once it is passed on to other people. But you don’t have to be an IT support expert to fully format and reset your hard disk. A factory reset is easy to do on most machines – information which can again be accessed online through a quick search.
Don’t throw me away I still have a use
Still in need of extra drive space? Why not use your old PC as a file server for the other computers in the house. Simple installation of applications such as Plex or operating systems like Windows Home Server can enable you to keep the old PC in use and provide yourself with a valuable backup facility.
Average PC lifetime
Typically a PC will need replacing every 4-6 years based on the current rate of computer innovation (depending on a user’s needs, of course). But most machines have a shelf life of nearer a decade before they begin to become too costly to run.
However you choose to repurpose or dispose of your PC, make sure you do so responsibly.
Thanks to Syntax Integration for their contribution
