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Spreading Joy (lemmy.ca)
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[-] pulsewidth@lemmy.world 30 points 1 day ago

Hard drives should not go in the general trash which usuallu heads to landfill - they should be sent to e-waste for proper disposal / recycling.

Older drives will have lead solder, and vintage hard drives will have even more toxic content potentially including cadmium, beryllium, and mercury. None of that belongs in landfill. Beyond old drives, newer drives have many valuable recyclable materials - send it to e-waste.

[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago

If only such e-waste recipients were more readily available and inexpensive. Even my not-so-small town only has e-waste days a few times a year, hope you’re off that day and time, and of course you have to pay to drop anything off. A real disincentive for the average person to do anything except throw e-waste into the trash.

[-] pulsewidth@lemmy.world 2 points 20 hours ago

In Australia we just take it to an electronics retailer since 2011 - as they are now legally required to accept it and send it on to a certified e-waste disposal partner, provided they import over a certain threshold (avoids overburdening small businesses). For example if the store sells computers they have to accept computer e-waste, so you can drop it with them - even if you didn't buy it there. It is all free.

https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/protection/waste/product-stewardship/television-computer-recycling-scheme

[-] fatalicus@lemmy.world 2 points 22 hours ago

You guys should be better at that.

Here in Norway any store that sells electronic products are required by law to also take in e-waste from any private person (and any private company that is a customer of that store) and handle that e-waste correctly.

All municipals are also required to make sure there are enough free e-waste return points for their citizens.

[-] HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 2 points 23 hours ago

In Montreal it's pretty terrible. It's a fragmented set of hodge-podge solutions. Batteries? Take them to the thrift store. Phone? Drop it off in a metal box next to a grocery store, but not separate batteries there! Bigger items? Go to an "eco-center", only to find out they are not easily accessible by public transit and even if you find one close to a bus stop, it's still a walk up an access street with no sidewalk where you notice the center is more for contractors to drive up in F350s and dump drywall, and when you show up on foot with a backpack full of crap they ignore you or look at you with a dull, bovine expression of "that wasn't in the training video".

[-] BigDaddySlim@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Same here, we used to be able to at Best Buy, but they closed that in our town so now the only option I'm aware of is the church downtown doing an e-waste recycling day once every quarter or so.

I saved a perfectly good Trinitron from being recycled there one year.

[-] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

I always open them and thoroughly trash the disks first.

[-] Sarmyth@lemmy.world 1 points 23 hours ago

I collect the magnets myself. They're super strong and ive always found uses for them elsewhere

[-] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago

They should not usually go to landfills. That's the problem here.

[-] pulsewidth@lemmy.world 5 points 23 hours ago

Yeah that was what i said?

Nobody is sorting through bagged trash like in the picture mate. Bagged trash generally goes to landfill.

[-] electric_nan@lemmy.ml 23 points 2 days ago

I know an old geologist who loves to leave bigass rocks out in the wilderness, far from where they should naturally originate. He does this specifically to fuck with future geologists.

[-] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 23 points 2 days ago

You can use a dry erase marker to remove permanent marker.

[-] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 14 points 2 days ago

Isopropyl alcohol 👍

[-] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 day ago

Fill the drive with memes

[-] HorikBrun@kbin.earth 17 points 2 days ago

My kind of chaos goblin.

[-] voodooattack@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago
[-] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 days ago

More like Chaotic Trolling

[-] dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago

Worst lotto scratcher, ever.

[-] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 13 points 2 days ago

I like to hammer a big ass nail through dead HDDs.

That or absolutely trash them with a sledgehammer.

You're not pulling data off a maraca full of glass platter shards.

[-] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 17 points 2 days ago

Open them up. Free magnet.

[-] cannon_annon88@lemmy.today 11 points 2 days ago

Mr. Robot taught me you just need to microwave everything.

[-] prole 1 points 1 day ago

Might fuck your microwave up though, no?

[-] TheObviousSolution@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 days ago

If you open them, the disk platters make nice if possibly slightly toxic coasters.

[-] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

For personal ones I just sell them to recyclers with other old computer parts.

[-] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago

How to be a victim of identity theft: 101

[-] j4k3@piefed.world 8 points 2 days ago

How to dispose of encrypted drives with NDA datasheets. — Chalcopyrite – this is not the digigold you went looking for...

You became a copper baron!

...Timmy died of dysentery.

[-] TheObviousSolution@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Damn, I need to do this. I knew keeping those floppy disks would be useful for something someday. I'll even throw in a zip disk in there.

[-] bear 2 points 1 day ago

Can you imagine how much Bitcoin would fit on a Jazz drive?

this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2025
672 points (100.0% liked)

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