Nontrivial Exercises

How to Recycle My Old Computer - I Want to Know

Even though my side of the closet is fairly clean, my lovely wife still has an issue with the old computer, monitor and printer sitting under my shirts. And, so do I. However, I don’t want to simply toss it in the trash can. I’ve come to understand that the silicone and other electronics aren’t necessarily the best thing to through into our ground and let sit for hundreds of years.

I’ve heard of computer recycling programs, but I don’t know of any programs or how to go about recycling my computer. We recycle our plastics, steel and glass that our city service will pick up, but I haven’t seen any computer recycling places where I live in Dallas, TX. How do I find a place to recycle my computer? Will it cost me anything? While I’m at it, I should recycle the broken DVD player, wireless phone and old VCR that I’ve been keeping in the garage until I could dispose of them properly. What’s the next step?

With these questions, I’ve decided to document my computer and electronics recycling search. And, I’ll use my brand new MindManager maps to do it. Yes, I’ve finally made the investment in MindJet’s MindManger, after first musing about how neat but expensive it was. After reading more and more about it, using Freemind but not getting what I wanted out of it, and then learning about ResultsManager from Gyronix, I decided the investment was worth it. I couldn’t have been more right! MindManager is truly a revolutionary way to organize information, capture relationships between information and implement projects.

More on my MindManager experience to come – for now, however, I offer my initial map of my project to recycle my computer and electronics equipment. Using MindJet’s Research Accelerator add-in for MindManager Pro 6 (you can also read a more detailed explanation on the MindJet Blog), I’ve quite easily captured some initial web research on the topic.

Here’s my Step 1 map with research – now I’ll comb through these sites and see if I can find any concrete next steps.

Note: this map will display in Internet Explorer after downloading an ActiveX plug-in (you have a choice to agree to install this or not). You can also download the actual map below and view it with MindJet’s free viewer.

Here’s an image of my initial map:

And, click here to view the map in the web viewer.

Finally, click here to download the actual map and view it in MindManager or the free viewer noted above.

Any comments? Done this before? Already know where to do this in Dallas? Please, let me know! I will post updates as I figure more out.