Comments on: Goodwill PC won’t be rubbish after all… unfortunately

By: computer recycling

computer recycling — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 11:56:49 +0000

If they were to give you a pc then there is the risk that someone hadnt removed personal data from the hard drive. Also if they were to give away waste, someone got it home then fly tipped as it didnt work then its a vicous circle. The council has a duty of care to treat the waste as waste!

By: refurbished pc

refurbished pc — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 12:00:29 +0000

refurbished pc…

That was very interesting to me but while I think about it please check out my site I have been working on lately…

By: David Urmston

David Urmston — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 20:02:38 +0000

Hi,
what started out as definitely as good idea was scuppered by your being honest and asking the council to do the “right thing”. Derr ! What did you expect ?
Anyways, as stated above, the secret is to work out what day the container full of “broken”/unwanted PCs leaves the recycling plant, then turn up the day before with some of your old bits. Hang around, mooch about, put things in your car boot, but do not ask for permission.
I recently bagged a P4 3.2 GHz desktop from Packard Bell already loaded with Windows XP Pro and someones family photos.
Also you might consider a firm which manages hardware for businesses. They often rip out PCs and replace them with new ones when the “broken” item will take longer than 10 minutes to fix. Oh hum. Effluent society it is then !

By: Joe112

Joe112 — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 03:13:15 +0000

Why not use a false name? Perhaps slightly unethical but in cyberspace who are we but names on a screen? And certainly anyone would be able to replicate that

Unless someone only gives your false identity something because they’ve read this and suspect it’s really you…

By: carol

carol — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 16:25:36 +0000

At our local recycling place the lovely men in orange appear to have a range of items for sale. Worth going to ask, mind you if you don’t have some cash maybe not…

By: Stuart Turton

Stuart Turton — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:59:21 +0000

Interesting point hj – I reckon you’re probably on to something, but given that I work for the mag it seems slightly unethical for me to be asking our readers for free stuff. It’d be an interesting experiment, to see if somebody well established on a forum could build a PC for free from other people’s cast offs. Given our readership, I’m pretty sure you could build something monstrous.

Thanks for the support, though. Hopefully I’ll have something to show you guys in a few days.

By: hjlupton

hjlupton — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 12:39:38 +0000

Stuart,

I accept i may have completely missed the point, but couldn’t one of the methods anyone can use be posting in a forum asking the community for donations of any disused components? therefore making a number of these basement offers valid? For instance, the pc pro forums are a good community as are a number of the other forums i take residence in

I know if i was looking for spare parts i’d be posting in various forums. I know a lot of people (myself included) have old components kicking around the house that were removed because of upgrades etc that i have never gotten rid of on the “just in case” premise. Also i really hate binning anything that is still useable, i mean heck i still have my old acorn electron kicking around with loads of old tapes for it.

Just my 2 cents, really hope you manage to make some serious headway with the challenge

By: Stuart Turton

Stuart Turton — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 11:49:20 +0000

Would love to Jonh, but unfortunately I’m handcuffed by the rules of the game. I have to use a method, anybody on the street could replicate.

Cheers though,

Stu

By: Jon Parker

Jon Parker — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 09:30:10 +0000

If you want to rummage around a whole lot of free PC bits, we have loads, all stored in a 20ft container waiting to be sent off for WEEE disposal. This costs my company money, so the more bits you wish to take out for re-use, the happier I am. You are more than welcome to forrage!

By: technogeist

technogeist — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 17:34:22 +0000

The stance taken by the council’s recycling policy is ludicrous. I’ve seen perfectly decent PCs at my local tip and they would make very adequate internet-browsing boxes at the very least.

A sure sign the EU creates more problems than it solves.