RECYCLING OLD COMPUTERS - A LITTLE MISTAKE THAT COST A PROFESSIONAL $10,000 A YEAR

And How You Can Avoid it!

Recycling old computers can be very easy if you bounce through a few relevant steps beforehand. Here we'll outline the three main steps for recycling old computers that will ensure you save thousands of dollars a year.

In short these steps are:

1. Save all your old files
2. Overwrite your hard drive
3. Use a responsible electronics recycler

Technology, undesirable after six months

But back to our story... Jim Weaver is an insurance broker that ran his own firm for four years, before the economy turned, now he's gone to work for one of the majors.

After shutting down his branch, he'd rented a couple storage units to house all of the gear, rather than take up all the space in his garage. He still had hopes for reopening his own office.

While paying the storage rent of $400 per month for over a year, he visited the units only a few times since renting them out.

$400 per month to house used machines and furniture he could sell for no more than a few thousand dollars, maybe. You know that technology is undesirable after six months, and most everything electronic demands expensive repair at five years.

Recycling old computers, forgetting about your files

He finally decided to pc recycle and abandon the eight computers and two network printers. He gave the desks, tables, chairs, etc. to an entrepreneur friend of his.

On his machines were hundreds of documents, client lists, thousands of email communications, his phone book, plus lots more. You know all the important files you have on your machines, I'm sure.

Recycling old computers, gone wrong!

It had been almost two years since recycling his old computers. All of a sudden he received three cancellations from what would have been normal renewals from clients that had been with him for literally years.

The next week followed with another handfull of cancellations via angry letters from clients in the middle of their annual contracts!

His challenges continued for about two months and the tally rose to approximately 48 canceled clients in what had to be the biggest downturn he'd ever had in the insurance business. His commissions tallied up to about $200 per policy, per year that clients stayed with him.

Most of which always renewed.

He contacted as many of them as he could get on the phone and discovered the raw truth. Someone ended up getting one or more of his old hard drives and began an online libel campaign towards his clients, as if from his voice and perspective.

They said things only he would have known. Likely information gathered from emails.

You bet he apologized profusely, but sorry just wasn't good enough! People's private information was now online, possibly forever.

He still cannot figure out where the link in the chain broke, nor does it matter now.

Recycling old computers, three vital steps

All that matters is that you save all of the files you believe you would want at any time in the future. The easiest way to do this is use an online hard drive storage service. I strongly suggest our tried and proven free online storage system found on our data destruction page.

After you have saved all of your files and applications to the online storage solution, you may then download all of your files onto your new computer or simply pay a small fee and keep your files there indefinitely.

The next step is to destroy all of the data on your hard drive. This is done by downloading a data eraser program which will overwrite everything on your hard drive with random mixes of letters and numbers.

I suggest learning more about the methods of data erasing and using the free data destruction program that we've hand selected.

And finally, I suggest having All Electronics Recycling handle the recycling of your old computers properly and responsibly. I can tell you that when it comes to computer and electronics recycling we live to get it right, every time.

I know this because I see our staff working joyously everyday at our mission of being your one-stop source for free online storage, data destruction, disposal and recycling of anything with an electric cord; 100% focused on reducing, reusing and recycling responsibly.

Schedule your computer recycling pick-up today!

All Electronics Recycling is currently picking up most everything with an electric cord in your neighborhood (commercial or residential) for reuse or recycling.

So, if you want a complete all-in-one solution for recycling old computers, I suggest filling out the form up on the right or calling us now at (800) 924-0884 to be scheduled in our pick-up routes.

P.S. Also, please ask your friends, family, and colleagues if they're recycling old computers, so we may pick it all up on the same trip as well. We can always come back next month, although that may increase our carbon footprint, so please act now.