Recycling Your Old Computer
It’s the end of the year and many progressive towns and cities are either already recycling or are thinking about recycling old computers. Many municipalities already do this with TV sets, but not so many do it with computers.
There are quite a few reusable parts in a computer when you think of it, but most people just throw their old computers away when they cease working or get 'too slow'.
Then they go out and purchase a new one which has precisely the same DVD player as they just put in the bin. That goes for the internet card, the hard drive and the modem and other bits and pieces too, I am certain. There might even be toxic substances in the chips that could pollute the soil at the landfill site.
It will almost certainly become normal practice in the not too distant future to recycle computers and other items of electronic apparatus. In fact there are already some places that willingly accept 'old' computers, although there are not many that recycle the components out of broken ones.
Some churches and most charity shops will take working computers to redistribute (or sell) to children, whose parents cannot afford to buy them or to be sent to Third World countries, where there is a dire need for computer hardware so that children are not left behind in the technological advances being made in communication and workplace apparatus.
However, there do not seem to be enough people cannibalizing old computers to make ones that work. After all, any computer is better than no computer at all and it does not take an advanced machine to go on the Internet, particularly if you do not insist on running Windows 7. Older versions of Windows are more that capable or running Internet software. We used them for years, didn't we?
Monitors and printers are also reusable or even recyclable, although these things are not usually thrown out as frequently as computers. Monitors can be taken care of in the same fashion as televisions; anyway it is always handy to have a standby monitor.
Ink cartridges should be refilled rather than replaced. All you need is a bottle of the correct sort of ink. Indian ink will do for the black cartridge which is the one most people replace the most often.
Take a syringe with a needle, suck up a couple of milliliters and squirt it through the hole in the side - NOT through the hole in the bottom, or you will harm the cartridge. This hole is usually concealed with sticky tape or a label, but it is easy to find if you are looking for it. You can refill cartridges a dozen or more times, before they get clogged and that can save hundreds of dollars (on average a black cartridge costs $10-15).
Color cartridges are refillable in the same way and you should be able to get hold of the three inks necessary for color printing at a printer. Color cartridges are even more costly to replace. Another advantage of refilling yourself is that you will not run out of ink halfway through a print job.