If I had a hammer, I'd hammer in the morning....

September 8, 2010 5:26 AM

Recycling Hard Drives: if I physically damage old hard drives to make them unreadable, can they still be effectively recycled if I bring them to my local e-waste center?

I have about 12 old hard drives (IDE mostly) of various sizes that I'd like to recycle in the most environmentally-friendly way possible. If I physically damage the drives to make the data irrecoverable using a sledgehammer, can the drives still be recycled? Or will damaging the drives make it impossible to retrieve the aluminum/other valuable materials that recyclers want when they accept hard drives?

I'm asking since it's (much) faster for me to hit the drives with a sledgehammer (I don't have a drill) to make the data essentially irrecoverable than to read/write zeros to each of these old drives. But if physically damaging the drives will make them unsuitable for recycling, I'll do it the slow way.

Any info would be greatly appreciated!

posted by longdaysjourney to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

Best answer: I know you said it's mostly about time, but if you take them apart you can get the magnets for use in other projects. Then, take most of the rest of it to an aluminum recycler. Take the boards to your e waste facility. If you recycle the aluminum yourself, you can get a few bucks for it.

To actually answer the question, a sledgehammer would not make them any less recyclable from the facility's perspective.
posted by tomierna at 6:09 AM on September 8, 2010

Why not just DBAN them and donate them for someone else to use?
posted by Biru at 6:45 AM on September 8, 2010 [3 favorites]

Here in Seattle, the local PC recyclers-for-charity group uses a hydraulic press on donated hard drives.
posted by nomisxid at 7:34 AM on September 8, 2010

Response by poster: Tomierna: Part of me would love to take them apart (magnets!), but I don't have the time or space right now, unfortunately. And I really need to centralize/simplify/declutter, which is why I'm getting rid of them in the first place. Thanks for the info re recyclability - a hammer it is then.

Biru: They're pretty ancient in "computer years" (IDE connections and 100 GB-250 GB in size) and DBAN-ing takes forever (I tried it on one 120 GB drive and even a 3-way pass took more than a day). I don't want to repeat the process eleven more times if there's a faster way of making the data essentially irrecoverable without making the drive un-recyclable in the eyes of a e-recycler.

Thanks for the answers!
posted by longdaysjourney at 7:41 AM on September 8, 2010

Metal is malleable. Pounded metal can be recycled. This isn't any different than a recycling center receiving a bunch of crushed soda cans and recycling them, or a scrapyard crushing up a car before it recycles the metal.
posted by dfriedman at 8:42 AM on September 8, 2010

Blast furnace or industrial smelter. T2 didnt even survive one of those.
posted by Fiat124 at 9:54 AM on September 8, 2010

You may also want to look into whether your "e-cycler" is a responsible recycler, or is just doing what a lot of people do: piling the stuff into cargo containers that get taken to Africa or China, where children incinerate them over camp fires for scrap metal. If you cannot find a responsible recycler, you may be better off sending the components to a landfill. The toxic byproducts produced during irresponsible "recycling" (open pit incineration, acid baths) are probably much worse than just writing off the scrap materials.
posted by Kadin2048 at 11:08 AM on September 8, 2010 [1 favorite]