You have a really very old PC, and because it is already broken and doesn’t work or for whatever reason, you don’t want it or you can’t take advantage of it and you prefer to 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 should follow to throw away an old PC and dispose of it, since you could “cause” millions of dollars in fines if you throw it in a garbage container.
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 may also happen that it has broken down and that it is not worth trying to repair it. What to do then? Do not throw it directly into the garbage containers, because in addition to the fact that you could be fined , they could take personal data from it if you do not take some precautions.
Where to throw an old PC, not in the trash!
When you want to get rid of your old PC, the first thing that may come to mind is to leave it next to the garbage containers in your neighborhood, or even throw it inside. This is something that can lead to economic fines of between 45,001 and 1,750,000 Euros (this is how it is listed in the WEEE because it is considered a very serious offense, as it is hazardous waste), because PC components contain very toxic substances such as lead or cadmium .
When you want to throw an old PC in the trash, the right place is at the nearest Clean Point , since there they have specific treatment processes through which not only the parts that can be reused will be recycled, but they will also be separated toxic agents from those that are not and they will be given the appropriate treatment to prevent them from causing an environmental impact.
If you don’t know where you have the Clean Point closest to where you have the PC you want to dispose of, you should know that in Spain 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 days and specific hours in which you can take the waste you want to dispose of) and if there are any additional instructions or precautions that you have to take into account.
What to do before getting rid of the PC
Surely you have read or have been told that even if you throw a PC in the trash, some “clever” could take over its storage unit and get personal data about you from there. Although the chances of this happening are minimal, it is actually true, so it never hurts to go to some trouble to destroy the information before throwing away the hard drive or whatever you have to store the data on that old PC that you are going to throw.
The most normal thing is that before throwing away the equipment, that you at least format the hard drive to eliminate the information. Even if it is formatted, there are ways to recover the information afterwards, but you will already be putting a significant obstacle since to carry out this task, the intervention of companies that have special mechanisms and whose fees are quite high is necessary (in 2022, it would cost approximately 1,200 Euros to recover information from a hard drive), and we don’t think anyone is SO interested in getting your data out 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 people prefer to directly destroy it with a hammer, but that’s up to you). The fact is that although even then the information could still be recovered, it would be something much more complicated and above all expensive so that it would not be worth it to anyone.
By the way, even if the hard drive or SSD is destroyed, you should also throw it at the Clean Point and never in the trash.
