Hello, I am Jolene Bonnell. I am going to use my site to discuss all of the techniques and tools you can use to recycle waste. There are a number of recycling programs in each community. You can recycle your electronics, scrap metal, cardboard and textiles if you know where to find your local drop off points. Some communities even provide food waste recycling services that turn old food into compost. I hope you can use the information on my site to increase the amount of waste you recycle at the proper venues. Thanks for visiting. I hope to see you again soon.
Learning About Recycling Services
Do These Two Things Before Recycling Your Old Laptop
Nelli Joki
Selling or recycling an old laptop is a good way to make some extra money and prevent electronic waste from finding its way into a landfill. Before you let go of your trusty portable computer, however, there are two important things you need to do to protect your privacy and prevent issues with your old laptop from haunting you in the future.
Remove Authorizations
Many subscription-based services anchor the accounts to specific devices to prevent people from sharing them. For instance, you can only register an Adobe Photoshop subscription on two computers, and these devices are registered in your account. The subscription will not activate on any additional computers you happen to install it on unless and until you remove an already approved device.
To prevent future conflicts between your computers or keep unauthorized people from gaining access to your subscriptions, be sure to go through and remove the authorizations logged on the computer and in your accounts. This also applies to apps, games, and other software that may be anchored to the computer. Make a list of all the authorizations that are in effect, and check them off as you remove them to avoid missing any.
Backup and Clean the Hard Drive
The second thing you should do is backup the hard drive and then wipe it clean. Although reinstalling the operating system will clear out any files and programs that were used on the machine, you'll want to go a step further and use a file scrubber if you want to absolutely sure no one can access sensitive information that may be lingering on the hard drive. You would be surprised at the technology available that can let an identity thief recover data from a wiped drive, so you need to use an industrial strength scrubber to be sure.
There are a few available on the market—such as Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN) or KillDisk—that erase information from the hard drive by essentially overwriting the existing data with unrecognizable junk. Whichever program you ultimately settle on, use it multiple times to ensure the data is truly destroyed. You may even want to encrypt your files before using the scrubber to make it extra difficult for anyone to access any readable information that may still remain after the hardcore cleaning.
For more information about preparing your used laptop for recycling or to see how much you can get for the device, contact a local laptop recycling center that accepts e-waste.
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