The City of Raleigh, in partnership with Wake County, collects old computers from Raleigh residents for recycling. The City offers the special collection service to support waste reduction and to keep potentially harmful materials inside computers from disposal in the county’s landfill. There is no fee for the service.
IMPORTANT! Residents are responsible for removing any sensitive data from hard drives and other storage media. Erasing the hard drive of sensitive information before recycling a computer is extremely important. There are software packages that can be purchased from computer and electronic stores that can help do this. Computers with Windows 95 and 98 come with an F-disk that can be inserted into the computer during start-up which will help in removing sensitive materials. Talk with someone who is knowledgeable about computers to ensure all the sensitive material is deleted prior to recycling or donating a computer.
Residents must call Solid Waste Services at 996-6890 to arrange for the special computer collection. Once an appointment is made the resident can leave the computer equipment at the curbside. Please do not set equipment out prior to the morning of the day designated for collection as it is not uncommon for such equipment to be taken by other people before city crews can get to it the next day.
Acceptable items include: computer monitors, cords, processing units, computer speakers, scanners, parts, keyboards, mice, fax machines and copiers. Only computer equipment or devices that are normally attached to computers such as printers, scanners or external drives are collected by appointment at the curbside by City crews.
Once collected the equipment is taken to Wake County's Multi-Materials Facility. Residents may take items directly to this facility themselves if they prefer. Call Wake County Solid Waste Management at 856-6186 or visit their web site (click above) for complete information. This facility also acceptsany electronic equipmentfor recycling. Acceptable items received at the facility are then sent to a broker for reuse. Items that cannot be reused are dismantled for the precious metals located on circuit boards. Some monitors may be repaired for resale while those that cannot be repaired are sent for glass recycling.
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT:
The city has partnered with Eco Lube at 4901 Atlantic Avenue to recycle electronic items. This includes just about anything with a cord. Examples include TVs, stereo equipment, telephones, small household appliances, and vacuum cleaners. Residents (no businesses) may drop off electronic equipment, along with any of the other fourteen recycling materials accepted only during Eco Lube's operating hours of Mon. - Fri. 8 am - 7 pm and on Sat. 8 am - 5 pm.
Eco Lube will also accept automotive fluids, including used motor oil, and used oil and air filters. Used oil filters will be banned from disposal in N.C. landfills (effective 10/1/09).
Residents are reminded that they may also make a tax-deductible donation of useable equipment to a number of charitable organizations (see below). The City of Raleigh promotes reuse of good equipment before recycling.
DID YOU KNOW?
Each computer monitor may contain as much as five pounds of lead.
Circuit boards contain heavy metals such as cadmium, mercury and chromium.
Plastic housings contain PCBs.
The following organizations accept computer donations. Please call to verify they will accept your items as they may change their programs.
For More Information Contact:
Linda A. Leighton
Waste Reduction Specialist
Solid Waste Services Department
400 West Peace Street
Raleigh, NC 27603
919-996-6890
