You have a really, really old PC, and because it’s already broken and not working or for some reason you don’t want it or you can’t enjoy it and you’d rather get rid of it. If this is your case, in this article we are going to tell you what is the proper procedure that you must follow to throw away an old pc and throw it away, because you might “fall” millionaire fines if you throw it in a trash can.
There are many uses that can be given to an old PC, but not everyone wants or can take advantage of it today, and it can also happen that it has broken down and is not worth don’t bother trying to fix it. What to do then? Do not throw it directly into the containers of the garbagebecause in addition to you could be fined
Where to throw an old PC, not in the trash!
When you want to get rid of your old PC, the first thing that comes to mind is to leave it next to your neighborhood trash cans, or even throw it inside. It’s something that can carry economic fines between 45,001 and 1,750,000 dollars (This is how it is listed in the RAEE as it is considered a very serious offense as it is hazardous waste) as PC components contain highly toxic substances such as lead oh cadmium.
When you want to throw an old PC in the trash, the right place is in the clean point the closest you have, because they have specific treatment processes by which not only the parts that can be reused will be recycled, but also the toxic agents will be separated from those that are not and they will receive the appropriate treatment to avoid th is causes an environmental impact.
If you do not know where you have the Clean Point closest to where you have the PC you want to get rid of, know that in Europe there is a free online search engine that will allow you to locate it quickly, where you will also be able to find both the opening hours (these sites usually have specific days and times when you can pick up the waste you want to dispose of) and if there are any instructions or additional precautions you should take into account.
What to do before getting rid of the PC
Surely you have read or been told that even if you throw a PC in the trash, some “clever” could seize its storage unit and extract personal data about you. Although the chances of that happening are slim, it’s actually true, so it never hurts to go out of your way to destroy the information before you throw away the hard drive or whatever you need to store the data on that old PC you’re going to throw away.
The most normal is that before throwing away the material, that at least format hard drive to delete the information. Even if it is formatted, there are ways to recover the information later, but you will already put a significant obstacle since to carry out this task, the intervention of companies that have particular mechanisms and whose costs are quite high is needed (in 2022 it would cost around $1,200 to retrieve information from a hard drive), and we don’t think anyone is THAT interested in getting your data at that price.
However, you can also resort to a slightly more drastic measure which is to physically destroy the storage unit. For example, you can access a hard drive by removing the cover and scratching or breaking the plates (some prefer to destroy it directly with a hammer, but that’s up to you). The fact is that even in this case the information could still be recovered, it would be something much more complicated and above all expensive, so it would not be worth it for anyone.
By the way, even if the hard drive or SSD is destroyed, you should also throw it in the Clean Point and never in the trash.
