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Datacenter rush will create ‘tsunami’ of discarded electronics, report says
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2026
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I have several old but working electronics and I literally haven't been able to give them away for free. They're probably going to end up in the eWaste trash. I don't know if that leads to anything being reclaimed, but probably not.
I know what you mean, it makes me really wary to buy anything new because I know I'll have trouble getting rid of what it's replacing.
Luckily I've got some nephews that take a lot of hand-me-downs, but the breakneck speed of consumer electronics leads to some stuff becoming "obsolete" (read: harder to support) long before the hardware actually gives out.
I will typically not buy a new thing if I don't have a plan for the old one it replaced.
Hey, uh, any ereaders or tablets in that pile? I need something basic I can just read comics or books with but all the used stuff around me is priced as new and the new stuff is priced insane.
Sadly, no. Two ancient laptops (circa 2004, 2008) and a 20-something inch crt with no HDMI.
If that CRT has a Trinitron tube it'd probably be pretty easy to find an arcade/retro gaming enthusiast in your area who'd want it (and probably even if not...)
Few years ago I got a pile of old switches and other network stuff. Unmanaged 24 port gigabit switches, some firewalls and other network hardware you might find in a generic ~50 person office. No one wants them, but I don't want to throw away working and (potentially) useful hardware either. I suppose I eventually have to as my own network doesn't really need 200 ethernet ports and they are consuming the already crammed storage space I have.
And no, I'm not offering to ship them across the globe on my own expense. But trying to sell them on our version of craigslist for 15€ (shipping included) doesn't seem to work either.