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Computer Recycling Drop-off

Posted by Jerrold Litwinenko / December 12, 2006

20061215_computerrecycle.jpgThat's the end of an LPT cable looking you in the face, and it's a fading technology.

Do you have an extremely old Pentium II 400MHz tower sitting in the basement/attic/storage room taking up space that would otherwise be used to store other things (like your old Pentium III 700MHz machine)? Why not get rid of both of them forever, and at the same time avoid sending them to local landfill or shipping them to China for recycling?

20061214_computerrecycling.jpgFrom December 18th - 23rd, Toronto-based refurbisher, recycler, and IT service provider Computation is offering the general public an opportunity to get rid of old, defunct computers and parts in an environmentally conscious and privacy-ensured way.

How do they do this? I spoke with Dennis Maslo of Computation, who shed some light on the process.

Stuff that's isn't ancient will be refurbished for resale or donation to local not-for-profits and charities. Older or irrepairable items are dismantled into smaller component pieces that are further separated into material streams (aluminum goes here, copper there, this plastic goes here, etc). The use of recylcing and smelting allow us to incorporate much of the materials back into usable form without having to resort to much dirtier processes like landfill or incineration.

Drop-off your unwanted computer equipment for recycling at their Toronto facility:
2444 Bloor St. West (entrance at rear)
10:00am - 7:00pm, Monday - Friday
10:00am - 6:00pm on weekends.

For larger quantities, organizations, businesses, special requirements, or more information please contact Dennis Maslo at 416.629.5667

(recycle PC image: computation.to)

Discussion

6 Comments

sookie / December 12, 2006 at 04:48 pm
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I've promised to take care of someone's old computer for awhile but never got a call back from Reboot. As with most old computers the problem is ensuring that sensitive material doesn't make it into the wrong hands. I'm curious what they'll do at Computation to alieviate my concerns, but I'll give them a call and find out. Thanks J.
jerrold / December 12, 2006 at 06:16 pm
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My guesses: proper formatting, a giant magnet, or a sledgehammer :)

I'll send Dennis an email and then report back here regarding privacy concerns.
Dennis Maslo / December 12, 2006 at 08:24 pm
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At Computation Ltd. we have a number of data destruction techniques available to us. The ones we employ most commonly include using specialized hard disk wiping software which passes over each bit of a hard disk several times, each time overwriting it with a random value. Failing that, we puncture the hard disk's platter and controller with a drill bit and send it off to a smelter shortly thereafter. At client request we sometimes apply a degaussing unit to the hard disk. We use the same techniques for our commercial and residential clients.
jerrold / December 12, 2006 at 08:47 pm
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Thanks for the additional info, Dennis.
Allan / December 13, 2006 at 09:43 am
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Hopefully you can offer this at another time too. That particular week is one of the busiest of the year for a lot of people. How about again in January?
Kelly Galaski / December 13, 2006 at 11:35 am
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Hi there, thank you for your interest.

Computation will definitely be having another recycling event in January. Once our December event is over, our website will be updated with the new dates. We look forward to having you participate next time. Enjoy the holidays!

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