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It was a day of many errands…

I stopped by the CRC to donate a box of old computer parts for resale and recycling. This batch included a PowerPC 6100 that used to be my answering machine, a CD-ROM burner, a SyQuest drive that used to be my monitor stand (my collection of cartridges went to GreenDisk last year), and a DSL modem that I’d tried to sell on Craig’s List for six months until I finally accepted that the cost of selling it was far higher than the cost of giving it away. Fare you well, tools of my past. You may consume someone else’s garage space now.

Next, I went to Office Depot. I had an old 20'' Apple monitor that had the blues, by which I mean the screen would intermittently turn blue, as if some of the pins on the input cable were not making contact. Normally I would drop this at the CRC, but the CRC cannot guarantee that old monitors don’t end up in landfills in China, whereas HP’s recycling program does.

I was pleasantly surprised to see people taking advantage of the HP/Office Depot computer-recycling promotion… I followed two women with one full computer system apiece into the store. “Oh, you’re back!” said the clerk to the women, and then with a smile, “See you tomorrow!” Office Depot will take only one device per person per day, so if you have an entire office backroom to unload, bring a friend, and visit often. (But remember, it’s only free through Labor Day.)

Finally I went to the Household Toxics Roundup. I didn’t have much to dump this time… some broken CF bulbs, some old paint, and a few assorted bottles of evil chemicals that came with the new house (lurking in dark corners of the garage, where they spawn fresh new unidentifiable chemical offspring over time). Again, I was happy to see the community taking advantage of the service, bringing in old car batteries, hundreds of partial gallons of paint, pesticides, motor oil, lubricants, degreasers, miscellaneous other DNA-kinking nasties.

Then, to reward myself for spending two hours making sure the toxic remnants of my modern American lifestyle don’t further poison the local environment, I went shopping for a plasma television. I figure this is part of the recycling circuit… if I offload a bunch of old plastics and electronic gear, I need to buy some new ones, right? Or else the junk might build up somewhere. That can’t be a good thing.