4 eco-friendly ways to get rid of a laptop

When a laptop has finally outlived its usefulness, it can be tempting to discard it, both mentally and literally, and move on to your next laptop that’s better, faster, lighter. It’s an exciting time!

But before you do, hold on. Don’t just throw your old laptop in the trash. For starters, you’ll want to wipe it clean of all your personal data. After that, you might be able to recoup something from it. And even if you can’t—or simply don’t want to—reclaim value from your old laptop, you still shouldn’t just throw it away.

The U.S. produces almost 7 million tons of e-waste each year and you’d only be contributing to this growing problem. Fortunately, there are plenty of organizations out there that will be more than happy to help you get rid of it in a more greener way.

Here are several ways to dispose of your old laptop in an eco-friendlier way and help the world in reducing unnecessary e-waste.

First step: Wipe your data clean

Before you discard your laptop at all, you should really back up your important data and then wipe the laptop completely. That means securely erasing the SSD and/or hard drive to make sure your data doesn’t fall into anyone else’s hands.

Performing a factory reset might feel like adequate protection, but it isn’t enough. Someone who knows what they’re doing could potentially recover your seemingly deleted data, and that can leave you vulnerable to identity theft or hacking attempts.

And if you do end up trashing the laptop altogether, you can physically destroy all of the drives if you want to be absolutely sure. (Or you can save those drives and repurpose them in other ways.)

With that out of the way, here’s what you can do with the actual laptop that you no longer need or want.