Recycle Computers and Make a Donation (or Recycle Computers and Get Cash!)
- Either way, you will help the environment.

Technology changes faster than we can blink. Our nation is drowning under the weight of our discarded electronics. Many of these old cell phones, digital cameras, video cameras, and computers are in good working order. They’ve just been upgraded, given the pink slip by their owners.

What do we do with these old gadgets? All too often they end up in the basement waiting to be purged. At the next spring cleaning, off to the landfill they go.

What should we do with our old electronics? Recycle computers - give them away! But that takes motivation and energy and effort. Too much effort. Many companies have stepped up to help you with that burden. Some of these companies donate the equipment to charities and you get a deduction. Some sell the equipment, donate the proceeds to charity, and you get a deduction. And some just plain pay you cash. And cash can be a good motivator.

I recently came across a site called Second Rotation. They buy your old electronic gadgets - and they make it really simple.

• Using their user friendly pricing guide, you can quickly find the make and model of the item you want to sell.
• You then answer a series of yes/no questions about whether the item is working and whether you have all the original stuff like chargers and manuals that came with the product.
• Then you rate the overall condition of the product. Second Rotation calculates an estimate of what they will pay you for it.
• If this is acceptable to you then you click accept.
• You ship the product to Second Rotation free of charge.
• They check out your product, if it is up to snuff, they send you a check for the price you agreed to.
• Easy.

Second Rotation accepts a variety of gadgets. They recycle computers (laptops), cell phones, gaming consoles, digital cameras, camcorders, mp3 players, and GPS devices. Just remember, you must check that the make and model of your product is listed, as they don’t take everything.

Of course Second Rotation is only one option in electronics recycling. A while ago I wrote about about a company where you can recycle cell phones for a good cause. Donating electronics is always a good choice as well.

A fellow mommy blogger, Boogiemum, has taken on a Great Plastic challenge. Here are the details of her week 1 and week 2 efforts to use less plastic in her home and life.

And that is exactly what the Great Plastic Challenge is - an effort to improve our world by wasting less and using less plastic.Here it is in a nutshell:

Each week, choose one plastic-packaged item that you buy regularly and commit to PERMANENTLY substitute a home-grown or non-plastic-packaged alternative.

We do take plastic for granted, without a second thought about how much will end up in a landfill. I recently posted a video showing how ridiculous plastic packaging has become. We really have to stop this wastefulness and take a stand.

I will join Boogiemum on her quest to use less plastic. My first step will be to no longer purchase bottled water. I have many reusable water bottles. I pledge to use these instead. Yes, I know, they are still plastic so maybe this doesn’t qualify for the challenge. But I already own them - so it is better for the environment to use what I already own instead of purchasing a bunch of single use water bottles that would end up in the trash or recycling.

Will your family join us in this Great Plastic Challenge?

Here are some more recycling tips:

• recycle computers
• recycle  cell phones
• recycle holiday cards