What we can and can’t take
Nothing here is a judgement about your stuff. It’s about what a student-run workshop can physically handle and what a certified recycler will take off our hands.
Yes, please
Working or dead, both are useful. Dead ones get stripped for parts and the rest goes for material recovery.
- Laptops
- Desktop towers
- Monitors (flat panel only)
- Phones
- Tablets
- Printers
- Cables & accessories
- Networking gear
Something not on the list? Choose “Other” on the form and tell us what it is. If we can’t take it we’ll say so before you make the trip.
No, sorry
- CRT monitors and TVs
- Microwaves and large appliances
- Smoke detectors
- Anything with a swollen or damaged battery
CRT monitors and TVs
CRT monitors contain several pounds of leaded glass. Processing them costs recyclers money rather than earning it, and we’re a student group without the budget to cover that. Your county almost certainly runs a household hazardous waste day, and that’s where a CRT needs to go — search for your county’s name plus “household hazardous waste” and you’ll find the dates.
Microwaves and large appliances
Different waste stream, different handling, and more than two students can lift. Appliance recycling is usually free through your municipal solid waste service or the retailer delivering the replacement.
Smoke detectors
Most contain a small radioactive source (americium-241). They are safe on your ceiling and a regulatory problem in our workshop. Manufacturers generally take them back by post.
Anything with a swollen or damaged battery
A swollen lithium cell is a fire risk in a car boot and a worse one in a bin of other devices. Don’t post it, don’t bring it — your county hazardous waste facility will take it. If a laptop or phone case is bulging or won’t sit flat, that’s what swollen means.
Loose batteries
You don’t need to take batteries out of anything. If you already have loose ones, put tape over the terminals before they travel and don’t pile them into a single bag or tub — a shorted terminal against another cell is how battery fires start.
What about the data on it?
Assume we will erase everything, and don’t rely on us to save anything. Every device with storage is separated at intake and logged. Drives are sanitised to the NIST SP 800-88 Rev. 1 “Purge” standard, or physically destroyed if they can’t be wiped.
Before you hand anything over: back up what you want to keep, sign out of your accounts, and turn off Find My or activation lock. A locked phone is scrap to us; an unlocked one is someone’s first phone.