Donate and recycle equipment

FreeGeek Chicago responsibly recycles and refurbishes computers and computer-related hardware in any condition.  This page covers the equipment we accept, equipment we do not accept, recycling & pickup fees, our data destruction policy, and how to prepare your donation for drop-off.

We accept donations during OpenShop hours. To schedule a large donation, or request a pickup, drop us a line on our donation contact form.

Equipment we accept

• Laptops, Desktops, Tablets
• LCD Monitors and CRT Monitors
• Keyboards and Mice
• Cell Phones, PDAs, and other Mobile Devices
• Video Game Consoles (and Games!)
• Networking Equipment and Servers
• Printers and Scanners
• Peripheral cards, cables, media, software and manual, computer books
• All other computer-related hardware, parts, and supporting material.

Equipment we do not accept

• Televisions
• Photocopiers and Fax Machines
• VCRs, DVD players, and other Stereo Equipment
• Telephones and Telephone Systems (We will accept SIP VoIP equipment)
• Microwave ovens, Air-conditioners, and other appliances
• Cardboard boxes and packing materials (e.g. styrofoam)

Recycling Suggested Donations

There are a number of items FreeGeek Chicago accepts which have limited reusability and therefore get sent to our recyclers in bulk. While FreeGeek gladly accept these items to ensure safe and responsible recycling of these items, we do suggest the following donation per item to help cover our recycling and processing costs.

• CRT Monitors (Including Computers with Built-in CRT): $10 each
• Printers: $10 each
• Equipment that is known to be broken: $5.00 each
• Desktops/Laptops Older than a Pentium 4 PC or Intel-Based Macs: $5.00 each

Data destruction policy

FreeGeek Chicago wipes or physically destroys every hard drive and all storage media it receives. We use Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN) to wipe drives. In the case of broken or obsolete drives, FreeGeek Chicago renders the drive physically unusable (with a hammer or drill) before sending it to any downstream recycler. If you require certified compliance with data-destruction and retention regulations, you must destroy your data prior to donating equipment.

Preparing your donation for drop-off

To make a quick and easy drop-off, please consider writing up a list of items that you plan on donating to FreeGeek. Please bring as little packaging as possible. It is also helpful to us if you remove any stickers, notes, etc. We do not recycle styrofoam. Please try to untangle all cords and cables. Coil them up with a rubber band or twist tie. Attach power adapters (AC adaptors, transformers) to their associated equipment (such as powered speakers, printers or external modems) as best you can; clear packing tape works well.

Environmental policy

We reuse any materials we can to build complete computer systems that we give to volunteers as part of our Earn-a-Computer program or sell for far below the used "market rate." Reuse is the most environmentally-friendly path for your old hardware. Since reused materials don't need to be processed by recyclers, there is no energy cost to turning the materials into a new usable product. Our computer buyers, and those who earn a computer in our program, are diverted from buying newly produced computers, which further reduces the energy cost associated with putting a computer into their hands.

We are given a lot of material that we cannot reuse, most commonly because its age makes it infeasible for use in a modern personal computer or because we have tested it as non-working. Materials that we cannot reuse are sent to a recycler that we have carefully chosen based on their processes. The criteria that we use to consider and approve recyclers are based on those of Freegeek Portland:

• Vendors may not ship overseas any material considered hazardous by The Basel Action Network. All processing of these materials must occur in North America or Western Europe.
• Vendors may not send to the landfill material that could be recycled. Some material may be landfilled if there is no recycling process available, or if the only alternative would be burning it for fuel, which is less desirable than landfilling.
• Vendors may not use prison labor in any part of their process.
• Vendors are allowed to ship out of the country only material that is considered a commodity, as in clean steel, plastic, or copper.
• Vendors must be open to an audit of their processes, or provide results from a recent audit.
• Preference is given to vendors with BAN certification, or vendors who are in the process of being certified.

In 2008, FreeGeek/Chicago staff conducted a survey of area e-waste recyclers. We chose Supply-Chain Services (SSI) in Lombard, IL as our recycler for all these materials based on a number of impressive aspects of their recycling process: they claim a real recovery rate of around 98% (about 98% of material by weight that is processed by SSI is reused—other recyclers falsely claim 99% or 100% for marketing purposes), they export no materials except for CRT glass, which they ship directly to a factory in Mexico that reuses the material in televisions (one of only a couple that is allowed under the new EPA R2 certification) and PCBs, which they send to a smelter in Belgium, and they provide thorough documentation of recycling. Currently, SSI is our stated recycler for printed circuit boards (PCBs), plastic, scrap metal, printers, drives (hard drives are thoroughly wiped by Freegeek/Chicago before being sent to SSI), CRT and LCD monitors, wiring and connectors. SSI was recently awarded the contract to recycle federal agencies' electronics by the US EPA. They are ISO 9001 and 14001 certified, and will receive the EPA's new R2 certification. There is more specific information on how SSI processes materials on their website: http://www.supply-chainservices.com/index.php/stewardship/material-processing.html.