Recycle your old PC bits properly and save the environment

If your sluggish PC needs putting into retirement, or that MP3 player you dropped down the toilet no longer plays tunes, what were you thinking of doing with it? 

Some people just throw old electronic bits in a regular bin; most take it to their local tip, but how would you know whether the bits you're getting rid of are being properly disposed of, and not just chucked onto a landfill to add to the world's waste and leak toxic chemicals into our soil, or illegally sent abroad to Third World countries and given to immigrants to dismantle in hazardous conditions for the sake of millions of pounds worth of profit?

Well, if you are concerned about this situation, then you need to recycle your old electronic or electrical stuff properly. If you go to http://www.valpak.co.uk/dts/page1734.aspx you can search through a list of Designated Collection Facilities (DCFs) in the UK that have been approved by the Waste Electronic and Electrical Regulations (WEEE).

If you want to find out more about the truth behind PC recycling, check out the feature on page 30 in Issue Seven of Windows Vista: The Official Magazine, out now.

© Natalie Behring/Greenpeace