Outdated IT equipment - anything better to do with it than recycling?

May 29, 2013 7:36 AM

I have a temp job tidying IT store rooms. We're gonna throw away (I mean recycle) loads of stuf, like hundreds of kettle (power) leads, couple dozen first gen Cisco VoIP phones. Any better ideas?

So in the past few weeks literally every single generation of Mac and IT peripherals since 1990 have gone through my hands. Not giving away the 100 pre-Steve-Jobs Mac stickers we found (-; but mst of the other stuff just goes on a pile for the recycling contractor.

Any ideas from the hive mind? Sadly, any alternative plan cannot really take more effort as calling the contractor. Many thanks !

posted by yoHighness to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

You can sell that stuff on eBay. There's a decent market for gray market stuff because people don't want to upgrade and pay more, so they'll buy the out-moded stuff. (I'm thinking the IP phones which were pretty pricey back in the day.)

Here's a Cnet article that gives some resources for selling.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 7:43 AM on May 29, 2013

Some of the Green Recycling Centers now "pay" as well, in the form of gift cards etc... as a way of rewarding you using their service. The rewards are modest but they deal with all of the hauling, boxing, separating etc and are certified vendors.

Selling used IT equipment is often not a budgetary advantage and is also a huge time suck when you have a lot of stuff to get rid of.

I use a local organization that refurbs about 70% of the stuff they get and everything else gets recycled or parted out for sale on eBay
posted by bobdow at 8:19 AM on May 29, 2013

I just sold a Cisco 1600 and a Cisco 2600 on Craig's list. Didn't get a lot, but didn't ask for a lot and I know they are going to be used after refurbishment.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 8:22 AM on May 29, 2013

Anything Cisco has some value on ebay. As JohnnyGunn relates, I just *bought* a 2600 on ebay to use for training/experimentation. It was only $40, but your boss might feel like its worth the time if you get some hits on some of the equipment.
posted by gjc at 8:58 AM on May 29, 2013

I put the stuff up on craigslist under the free section and within minutes I always have a handful of people wanting the stuff.

My ad on craiglist usually list all the stuff or just pictures. Tell them they need a truck or if it can fit in a car. That they need to take everything and it has to be gone today by 5 pm. First come, first serve.

I've given away 200 power cables, 900 VGA cords, lots of old, old stuff that way.
posted by bleucube at 10:51 AM on May 29, 2013

Best answer: Materials for the Arts organizations or the local hacker space may want a donation.
posted by Sophont at 2:39 PM on May 29, 2013 [1 favorite]

My only hesitation with listing outdated equipment for free on Craigslist is that people may grab it simply to sell it as scrap metal. That's not the worst thing, but it might not be much of an improvement over sending it to recycling.
posted by dreamyshade at 3:19 PM on May 29, 2013

Response by poster: Thank you very much to all who answered! We are going to offer the stuff on an organisation internal list and I found a promising looking charity that refurbishes and gives stuff to NGOs. The hackerspace was a great suggestion.
posted by yoHighness at 6:06 PM on May 29, 2013