Dear Allie: What Should I Do With Old CD’s?
Posted on January 21, 2009 by
My friend Jeff e-mailed me with the following:
I just paid $54 to get six PCs and two boxes of cables, boards, peripherals, etc. dating back to the 80′s properly recycled. This after stripping the PCs of reusable parts and flattening a ton of no-longer needed packaging. I’m making progress in reclaiming my basement, but I still have two leftovers from my efforts: stacks of CD/DVDs and 3-1/2″ disks. Can you tell me the RIGHT thing to do with these? Has anybody ever come up with anything besides coasters for CD/DVDs?
Here’s my answer:
Hi Jeff,
Good for you for recycling all that old computer equipment!
Here are two links I found for recycling CDs:
http://www.cdrecyclingcenter.com/members/login
http://www.cdrecyclingforfree.com/
And if you want to get church sale crafty, here’s another one – http://www.make-stuff.com/recycling/cd.html
Or, you can make a greenhouse from CD cases – http://www.curbly.com/Chrisjob/posts/3858-Make-a-Mini-Greenhouse-from-Recycled-CD-Cases-
Best,
Allie
Do you have any ideas for old CD’s and DVDs?
My kids and I make Christmas gifts out of them. We glue two together so that the shiny side is out. Then in the center we glue pictures of the kids. Drill a small hole through the top and string a piece of ribbon. They make great ornaments or sun catchers!
If they’re still usable CDs and DVDs, donate them to a thrift store. Just because you don’t want them doesn’t mean no one will. I pick up old VHS tapes from the thrift store all the time.
If you have a garden, take the dvd/cd out of the case and run a string through the center hole. hand it/them around the garden. they spin in the wind and scare off birds. They also make a cool spinning light rainbow.
I meant Hang…
craigs list…free items
frisbee
hanging toys for the chickens to play with
do they float on an air hockey table? that could be a fun game!
On Saturday, there will be a collection for unwanted electronics at a local park here. They advertised it in the paper and it’s free. I think they do it from time to time just to keep people from dumping TVs and computers in landfills because they contain heavy metals like mercury. If the equipment still works, though, I wonder if somebody could put it to use.
Hey Allie, I was wondering the same thing a few weeks ago. I have a bunch of CD cases that I want to get rid of as well as some old computer cords. I was going to offer the cords on Freecycle, but I found this recycling company. I’m planning on shipping a box full of eWaste stuff to them soon. I’ll let you know what happens.
http://www.greendisk.com/gdsite/Default.aspx
It appears Sweethearts Mom is on a roll here.
Where I live, there is a store dedicated entirely to used books, music and movies. You can go trade in your old stuff for whatever value they decide it’s worth, then use that money to get yourself something new (well, used, but it’s new to you.) The whole process never involves anything brand-new. I love it!
You might want to take a look at paperpackswap.com. I use them to swap out books that I no longer read and to get books that I do want. They have a DVD/CD exchange system as well. I’ve never used it but if the CDs and DVDs are in good condition, you might be able to trade them for ones that you want.