DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

I’ve been accumulating “tech trash” for years: floppy disks, CD-ROMs, inkjet cartridges, etc. As I tossed my discards into a box in the garage, I had a vague plan of someday finding a way to recycle them. Today I found the way: a company called GreenDisk, whose reassuring motto is “Save the Planet [and some money]”.

GreenDisk’s “Personal Recycling” program provides a way for people to put all that old media and associated trash to good use — as new media (and associated packaging/trash). GreenDisk resells unused floppies (collected from software manufacturers’ unsold stock), and manufactures jewel boxes from post-consumer plastic waste. This is a great solution.

My first shipment to GreenDisk contained:

• 300 floppy disks
• 100 CD-ROMs
• 4 SyQuest cartridges (remember those?!)
• 30 cassette tapes (demo tapes from my first band in San Francisco) (Arista never did call back, damnit)
• a half-dozen inkjet cartridges
• about 40 of those anti-static Mylar electronics bags that, I swear, will outlast the cockroaches

The only tech trash I have that didn’t go into this box: three AOL CDs, which will be sent to NoMoreAOLcds.com, because dumping one million rejected CD-ROMs on AOL’s front door will be really funny.

GreenDisk charges a small processing fee. I was happy to pay it. This 21 lb box of magnetic-coated junk cost me $5 to be reused and recycled. Shipping (USPS Media Mail! I had to laugh) cost another $8 or so.

Why pay to ship all this to a recycler? Because if I were to throw this stuff in the trash, it would still exist, leaching chemicals into the county landfill, long after I’m gone. That is not the sort of legacy I want to leave.

By the way, if you live in the area, feel free to bring me your old media (videotapes, cassettes, floppies, CDs, DVDs, cases and jewel boxes) and printer cartridges. I’ll box ‘em up and recycle them.