Disposing of non-working devices

[itskdog]

We have a steadily growing collection on non-working devices in our cupboards (that can't even be cannibalised for spare RAM any more), and are trying to organise a cleanout to tidy up.

 

The only issue we have is that we don't expect that any of the recycling companies would take them for free, as they won't be able to get any use out of them as they don't work, and it's probably not worth their time to come and collect them, so we'll probably end up getting charged, which isn't something SLT will agree to, especially while we're in a projected deficit, but I'm also aware that we can't just give them away or dump them in a skip, because they might have school data on them (and we can't remove the storage from the DfE laptops from COVID), so we need a data destruction certificate.

 

When retiring working devices, we usually send them off with the HP Brighter Futures programme to get some cashback, so we don't even have anything working we can give them to sweeten the deal.

 

I know there was a recycling company at EDIT this year, but it seems their VOD has been taken down from the Live tab on YouTube and hasn't been re-uploaded to the Videos tab yet like they did with Clever and Smoothwall (maybe they needed to do some editing to the VODs?), so can't even sanity check if they said anything about it that would clarify anything, and their website doesn't make it obvious if they're assuming devices are working or not.

 

Does anyone have experience with recycling dead PCs/iPads that knows for sure either way if any of the IT recycling companies out there don't mind taking broken machines without any working ones?

[kennysarmy]

Try these guys;

 

https://www.wetradetech.com/

[synaesthesia]

Been using EnviroElectronics for ages, never had a single complaint. They leave us a big wheely bin, we fill it, they swap it for an empty when needed. More often than not it's 30% IT and nearly all entirely unusable as I've cannibalised everything, 50% site/science (for instance it's half full of those large orange variable power supplies they use in Science currently), a few broken fans/heaters and the odd other item no-one knows what to do with but it has a plug, so in it goes. I've no doubt it's a relief for them to open it up to find a couple of working but tiny LCD screens or older laptop every now and then

 

[Boredguy]

We use Enviro Electronics and have a large wheelie bin at each school site (Similar to the large waste bins) and we just drop in any electronic device and when it's full we arrange for a collection.  Thankfully it's a free service, and most of the time we get a collection arranged at least twice a year.

[willtech]

Enviro Electronics and Making IT Green

[MrEprise]

The only thing I found with Enviro Electronics is that when I requested a large wheelie bin, they told me that due to our location, it wouldn't be cost effective for them to do so and wanted to do a pickup there and then. Unfortunately due to my working setup, I wasn't able to commit to giving that much time to running around our site to pick up old/broken equipment for them to take (given we have no single place to put said old/broken equipment.)

In the end we went with We Trade Tech and they left us a cage to put all our waste in and I can do it all at my leisure.

[Claret_and_blue]

I used Computer Disposal Experts, they were more than happy to take them

 

Computer Disposal Experts

Edited July 1 by Claret_and_blue
Edited to add link

[TheHyperTechie]

1 hour ago, MrEprise said:

The only thing I found with Enviro Electronics is that when I requested a large wheelie bin, they told me that due to our location, it wouldn't be cost effective for them to do so and wanted to do a pickup there and then. Unfortunately due to my working setup, I wasn't able to commit to giving that much time to running around our site to pick up old/broken equipment for them to take (given we have no single place to put said old/broken equipment.)

In the end we went with We Trade Tech and they left us a cage to put all our waste in and I can do it all at my leisure.

We had this too. I was told they could only drop a cage off at our furthest north school. This defeated the point though, really, as I would still have had to load a van with kit from each school and take it there. Shame, as from what others say - it's a great service.

[itskdog]

Our biggest concern is how these companies make money if they're fine with taking only broken devices during a collection.

 

If they're taking junk for free, they're not going to be able to sell it to make money, right? Especially after the costs of the van collecting it and shredding the drives for the data destruction certificate, they can't make much on that, surely?

 

We don't have space to store a big trolley or bin for a quick swap - we've already had to convert our delivery room into a SEN space due to an increase in complex needs in this area causing the mainstream schools to have to take on the pupils that can't get spaces in the special schools. We also don't go through enough e-waste for that to be necessary, either. Right now it's just taking up space in our server rooms and we want to have a bit of a clearout as we're running out of storage space for things we actually need to keep.

 

We used to use PRM Green before they got acquired/went bust, and they required a minimum of 30 working devices on the spreadsheet before they'd come to collect for free, which is understandable given the work involved, so that's the perspective we're coming in from, hence the hesitancy.

[Ratcliffepg]

Never had any issues with Computer Disposal Experts and we have given them plenty of non working broken damaged devices !

[MrEprise]

43 minutes ago, itskdog said:

We don't have space to store a big trolley or bin for a quick swap - we've already had to convert our delivery room into a SEN space due to an increase in complex needs in this area causing the mainstream schools to have to take on the pupils that can't get spaces in the special schools. We also don't go through enough e-waste for that to be necessary, either. Right now it's just taking up space in our server rooms and we want to have a bit of a clearout as we're running out of storage space for things we actually need to keep.

To be honest, we don't have the space either and I'm finding myself moving the cage often as the spaces I use get earmarked for something else. This is where a bin would have been of more use as it could have lived outside but We Trade Tech said they couldn't give us a bin either (though that might have been due to the bins going missing/being used for other things.)

 

At the moment, I've plonked it in the exam table store but it can't really stay there either.

[DrBeaker]

5 hours ago, itskdog said:

... so we'll probably end up getting charged, which isn't something SLT will agree to, especially while we're in a projected deficit...

 

 

TOUGH, that's the message SLT need to get through their thick heads with this, sorry.

 

It's an operating cost / OPEX for the school. Same as the electric, gas, water and electric bill is.

 

Tell them you can get a 0% cost, as long as they have NO IT systems anymore.

 

How some of these staff get to be in positions of leadership without understanding some fundamental operational processes still amazes me.

 

I mean if we take the salary of one SLT away for IT budget and IT waste collections, they'd still come to work right... it's "for the kids" after-all?  😂 Not the high SLT salary, surely?

 

 

Quote

...I'm also aware that we can't just give them away or dump them in a skip...,

 

Don't bother trying to give them away. It's way too much hassle. 

 

 

 

[dhicks]

6 hours ago, itskdog said:

Does anyone have experience with recycling dead PCs/iPads that knows for sure either way if any of the IT recycling companies out there don't mind taking broken machines without any working ones?

 

Depending on your location / setup, your school might already a have a waste solutions provider who deals with your daily rubbish, recycling, confidential waste, etc, and will probably have an option to handle e-waste as well. We use Recorra, who I think mostly cover the London area, they can provide either a roll cage (the kind of thing you see supermarket delivery trucks delivering, about 2m high and 1m square, with wheels) or a large "gator tote"-style storage tub with a hinged lid. We use the tubs (we also have very limited storage space), which cost around £90 each delivered and taken away and with a certificate of data destruction if needed.

[drutt]

19 hours ago, kennysarmy said:

Try these guys;

 

https://www.wetradetech.com/

Been using these guys for the past year and they leave us a cage, we fill it with IT tat and they come collect. no muss no fuss.

[synaesthesia]

They still make money stripping & recycling certain parts - any laptop or desktop still has around £20-30 value in precious metals alone. Even if you feel bad dumping the 400 kettle leads you've accumulated, don't - unless they're awful quality, there's enough copper in them to justify operational cost of stripping them down.

[36Degrees]

16 hours ago, itskdog said:

We used to use PRM Green before they got acquired/went bust, and they required a minimum of 30 working devices on the spreadsheet before they'd come to collect for free

Same here. We now use National Asset Disposals who I'm led to believe are the same people who originally set up PRM Green

[itskdog]

25 minutes ago, synaesthesia said:

any laptop or desktop still has around £20-30 value in precious metals alone

 

Ah, we were thinking it might be pennies after the cost of stripping and melting it all down and getting maybe 5-10g at most.

[robintech]

@itskdog I don't see how SLT can have any issue as its a Criminal offence to even knowingly or instruct someone to dispose of WEEE in the wrong way. They either store it all up , have it collected for free or pay for disposal. 

Only stuff we've ever had to pay for was old smartboards as they go straight into landfill all the other items . Ours is www.tech-recycle.com but it looks like their SSL certificate expired on Tuesday, the older the tech the better as the manufacturers have managed to cut the quantity of precious metals down every generation.

[synaesthesia]

2 hours ago, itskdog said:

 

Ah, we were thinking it might be pennies after the cost of stripping and melting it all down and getting maybe 5-10g at most.

To be fair it might be nearer that these days - those figures are from back when I did recycling in circa 2006/2007! And that was with HUGE specialist equipment to tear down/extract.

I wonder if these days it might be a little less lucrative due to the prevalence of lion/lipo batteries, getting to the point where too much kit is like a fridge and not even scrappies want them thanks to the gases in them

[Andrew_C]

21 hours ago, itskdog said:

Our biggest concern is how these companies make money if they're fine with taking only broken devices during a collection.

You get as much gold out of a tonne of IT waste as you do from 16T of ore...

[Danp]

I use https://www.weee-recycleit.co.uk/

 

Free for laptops etc, only a small charge for large screens.

[DavR]

Another Enviro Electronics customer here. They're OK. We don't have space for a bin or a cage, although we did have a couple of plastic tote boxes for a while. Problem was, they'd take them away full and never bring us back new ones, so I gave up on that game. We have ours collected loose now, about once a year.

 

I think it's not quite as lucrative as it used to be, as they're getting slightly pickier about things they won't take, or not without a fee (waste toners, domestic electricals, etc). But as others have said, it's got to be worth their while.

 

With my Data Protection hat on, remember as part of GDPR et al, you're supposed to have a contract in place with your WEEE supplier, not just use services ad hoc.

[Jamman960]

Have been using wetradetech for a few years, the cage sits in a stairway with a cover over it, we fill it and they collect. Ours tend to be a mixture of working and scrap - last time there was a box of ~30 cracked Chromebook screens, they’ve never complained about what we’ve sent and always send a detailed asset report shortly afterwards 

 

James 

[MatthewL]

We have a company that provide us with a bit wheelie bin, collect most equipment but its for the metals in boards etc, they do charge but if you have enough it off sets the costs and sometime we end up with some money back.

[BlueSkies]

On 03/07/2026 at 16:16, DavR said:

Another Enviro Electronics customer here. They're OK. We don't have space for a bin or a cage, although we did have a couple of plastic tote boxes for a while. Problem was, they'd take them away full and never bring us back new ones, so I gave up on that game. We have ours collected loose now, about once a year.

 

I think it's not quite as lucrative as it used to be, as they're getting slightly pickier about things they won't take, or not without a fee (waste toners, domestic electricals, etc). But as others have said, it's got to be worth their while.

 

With my Data Protection hat on, remember as part of GDPR et al, you're supposed to have a contract in place with your WEEE supplier, not just use services ad hoc.

 

That's interesting about needing to have a contract with a WEEE supplier - do Enviro Electronics offer such a thing?

 

Most of the emails I have sent with queries to them are responded to with one liners - they don't always sound the most professional outfit!  Anyone else had the same?