yet another survery with the right answer missing - a some/all of the above.

We have a 6 year old powerbook whose hard drive crashed. It was beyond repair so it was recycled, and an external drive applied. My husband calls it frankenmac.

however we had an old monitor that we gave to a family member whose monitor had failed completely and their monitor was recycled.

So clearly, we fall into multiple categories, as I'm sure many of the other readers do.

Here in Germany you can bring it either to the municipality or to an electronics shop. They are supposed to dispose of them in a responsible way. But to be honest I do not know what that means in practice.

A lot of old computer equipment -- especially monitors -- have harmful chemicals like lead, mercury, flame retardants, etc. Probably the WORST thing you can do is throw it away.

The only responsible thing to do is to either donate the equipment to groups like Goodwill or buy from companies that have takeback programs. You can find out more from these sources:

www.regeneration.org
OR
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/about_dell/values/environment/recycling_main?~ck=ln&c=us&l=en&lnki=0&s=corp

I agree with the poster above. We recycle some of our stuff, but as computer years are like dog years, a 5 year old computer is middle aged, sometimes even out local schools don't want them. We have a local recycler, GreenCitizen www.greencitizen.com, who recycles computers. He tracks all that he recycles, has committed to responsible disposal, and will not ship overseas for recycling. (big ewaste problem, one story i read about why there is lead in so many products from China was that there was a plentiful cheap supply of it from electronics recycling.)

In Ireland we pay a levy on all electronic items at the point of purchase, everything from light bulbs, toys and iPods to large household appliances. This levy funds bring centres run by the municipalities, where old electronics can be brought free of charge. From there they are supposed to be disposed of responsibly.

With large items which you'd probably have delivered e.g. a fridge, the supplier is supposed to provide removal of your old item to the municipal centre at no extra cost.

Here in California it is illegal to throw away your old monitors. The state has introduced legislation that pays for the recycling of such items. I wish this survey had an option for the recycling of old electronics. I work at one such nonprofit that recycles thousands of pounds of electronics monthly. You can make a big difference by making sure that your old electronics are recycled responsibly, rather than shipped overseas for "reuse," where they get disassembled in conditions that are unsafe for people and the environment.

Here in California it is illegal to throw away your old monitors. The state has introduced legislation that pays for the recycling of such items. I wish this survey had an option for the recycling of old electronics. I work at one such nonprofit that recycles thousands of pounds of electronics monthly. You can make a big difference by making sure that your old electronics are recycled responsibly, rather than shipped overseas for "reuse," where they get disassembled in conditions that are unsafe for people and the environment.

I live in Minneapolis, MN and we take our old electronics to the county recycling center. We can't leave them on the curb here for pickup, but there is a county site where we can drop them off for recycling for no charge.

i believe treehugger has mentioned earth911.org before where you can search for places in your area that recycle/reuse all kinds of stuff so i've done that and found a place that takes back all types of electronics, i asked what they do with it and they take everything apart, separate the materials and sell it, i guess it's working for them.

That's nice New York is considering product stewardship legislation for electronics, but what about all the other states that already have passed laws like this? Oregon, Washington, California, Maine, Minnesota, Connecticut, Maryland... Let's give a little credit where credit is due.

Here in Chicago, we're just like Ireland, but without the levy. The city runs an electronics/hazardous chemicals (unused paint, etc) takeback center on the north side, and has a schedule of neighborhood dropoff days for other parts of the city.