Where do all the old systems go to die?

I just read a blog by an online buddy of mine, which got me wondering...

I've mentioned him here before. He's the guy over in the US who gets hold of older computers and refurbishes them to go to deserving children, on a not for profit basis. He was saying how tired he was of all the effort he puts in that few seem to appreciate or support. As an example, he was saying about a radio interview he did that resulted in the donation of exactly one PC and a broken printer... I have to say, I can relate to that. In the past, I've offered to take old systems off peoples hands to refurbish and donate to schools etc. purely on a small scale. Nothing very formal or ongoing... I'd have hoped for maybe one or two systems to pass on...

So, where do all the old systms go? Thrown away? Put in a box and forgotten? Ebay? I've sold one system on Ebay for spares/repair that was beyond my ability to fix. Other than that, family have in the past received old kit that I've given a quick bit of TLC to, making it useable... How does everyone else deal with redundant stuff?

Humm....had a laptop from freecycle, I use it for my classes instead of note paper...and to look back at video we have taken on the camera straight away.

I also have my old PC sat in the back room. There is nothing wrong with it to be honest, just haven;t got around to doing anything with it.

I have never thought about passing it on for this kind of stuff

I'm sure you're not alone! I know of an outfit in Bristol that I think does refurbishing. http://www.bristolwireless.net/ Probably miles from you but it's in the S.West!

Only about 2 1/2 hour drive!!

I'm sure there must be somthing locally...will have a search around.

http://linuxlock.blogspot.com/2009/0...-it-is-go.html

Although it's not an international thing yet, I'm willing to recycle for people on an ad hoc basis....