this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2024
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zerowaste

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Discussing ways to reduce waste and build community!

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Way to reduce E-Waste (self.zerowaste)
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by countrypunk to c/zerowaste
 

Something I've been working on recently is collecting old and unused laptops from various people I know. Sometimes they're shitty Chromebooks that can barely be used but sometimes they're still perfectly good and recent laptops and people just got bored of them and decided to upgrade for whatever reason. I then put Linux on these laptops (even the shitty chromebooks) and distribute them to people at my college who need one.

With the date that Microsoft is stopping support for windows 10 approaching quickly, now's a great time to prevent e-waste by upgrading to Linux or collecting people's previous laptops as they upgrade. You can also get distributions that run better than windows on low-end hardware. Even if you don't know someone who needs a laptop, you can always do something like host a Minecraft server to make use of it.

Also, you can do this to phones too. There are plenty of custom ROMs you can load on Android phones to squeeze more life out of them. Let me know if you want recommendations.

Anyway, I hope that this can inspire more people to try and repurpose electronics to prevent them from becoming e-waste.

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[โ€“] countrypunk 1 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Assuming that there's no major issues with your laptop, I recommend that you at least donate your laptop to a thrift store or make a Craigslist listing and give it away to someone who could use it as opposed to putting it in the landfill. You never know who might find it useful.

[โ€“] CCMan1701A@startrek.website 1 points 16 hours ago

I put it in an eWaste pile which I hope is sending it off to be "recycled". There was no saving my palm pre or touchpads.