illustration of hand taking a photo on a phone Text Us

Junk King Sonoma

4.5/5 stars

Read Reviews

The #1 Rated Junk Removal Service. We provide superior value, service and effort

More About Us arrow

  • Call Us

    Let us know what you need disposed or recycled. We take just about everything!

    illustration of a cell phone
    1-888-888 (JUNK)

  • Text Us

    Send us an image of the junk you got and we got the rest covered.

    illustration of a hand holding a cell phone
    1-737-888-5865
  • gold star

    Save
    $20

Category Archives: Computer Disposal

Electronics Disposal – How to Get Rid of Your Used Devices in California

When it comes to electronics disposal, there is plenty of confusion. The average person seems to have no idea as to how he should properly dispose of his old or malfunctioning electronics. This lack of knowledge is causing irreparable harm to our environment. You can do our planet an enormous favor by printing out this article and passing it on to your friends and family.

Electronics Should NOT be Disposed of With the Normal Garbage Your old TV, computer monitor, video game console, printer or other electronic device should never be haphazardly tossed into your regular trash bins. Attempting to dispose of electronics in this manner is actually illegal in the state of California. If someone spots you attempting to trash any type of electronic device in this manner, they might report you to the authorities.

Can someone else obtain utility out of the Electronic Device? Before attempting to figure out how How-to-Dispose-of-Used-Electronics-in-California-Junk-King-Sonoma-CAto legally dispose of an electronic device you should consider whether another person might benefit from using it. If there is any chance that an impoverished person, student or organization can obtain any utility whatsoever out of the electronic device, donate it or sell it. Finding a new owner for the device will improve another person’s life while simultaneously reducing the burden placed on electronic recycling/re-use hubs. Even if the device is malfunctioning, there still might be a way to remedy the problem.

Recycling Centers Will Take Your Electronic Devices Nowadays, Californians do not dump electronic devices in landfills. Rather, we take them to organizations that recycle/recover undesired electronic devices. We at Junk King work with organizations that are actually qualified to recycle electronics. If the organization is not a participant in the Covered Electronic Waste Recovery and Recycling Program that was established by the state’s Electronic Waste Recycling Act of 2003, they might not have the means to properly dispose/recycle the device.

When in doubt, reach out to the junk hauling experts here at Junk King. We take each and every undesired item to our recycling hubs for a thorough utility and recycling assessment. Our junk hauling experts will drive our big red truck on out to your home or office and pick up just about any piece of junk you want to get rid of. Big Box Electronic Stores can Help There are a number of “big box” electronics outlets like Best Buy that will take in old computer accessories such as printers and monitors. These monolithic corporations have ample personnel and technological resources available to recycle aged or broken electronic devices in the proper manner. Even public libraries have stepped up to the plate by accepting empty ink toner cartridges from printers. When in doubt, refer to your local community services offices for more information regarding where you can drop off undesired electronics.

A caveat about used electronics disposal, be sure to erase all personal information stored on electronic devices before dropping them off at a recycling hub or other destination. Modern day electronics are “smart”, meaning they will store your private data unless you take the initiative to remove such sensitive information from the machine.

Disk Erasure Before Computer Disposal

There is a right and a wrong way to handling computer disposal.  Right now there are millions of computers collecting cobwebs all across America. You might have a few relics from the 1990s at your home office or crowding out your office storage spaces right now even.

Computer Disposal: Things You Should Know 

It seems pretty easy: Just chuck that old computer into the garbage bin and watch it get whisked away with the rest of your weekly pickup.

Hang on, though, don’t old computers contain a lot of heavy metals and personal information that – if it fell into the wrong hands – could jeopardize your future? The answer: Absolutely.

  • Computers as E-waste

Computers are actually a form of electronic waste along with things like batteries and cell phones. With the high rate of tech turnover these days there’s more and more e-waste making its way to landfills and recycling centers.

We really have to be careful in how we dispose this stuff because a lot of our appliances contain harmful heavy metals like mercury, cadmium and maybe even lead. When household appliances and electronics become e-waste we should really be responsibly recycling these things rather than heaping them up on the curb for weekly pickup.

The problem, as we’re coming to realize, is that computers that don’t make it back into circulation and instead wind up at landfills actually pose an environmental hazard.

Some of the heavy metals that are housed in computers can eventually make their way into the Disk-Erasure-Before-Computer-Disposal-junk-Kng-Sonoma-CAsoil and local water supply, which obviously isn’t good for anybody.

  • Old Computers and Personal Information

What we’ve been talking about is more of a macro view of the problem of treating e-waste and your old laptops, desktops, tablets and cell phones as regular trash.

Your trusty – now obsolete – computer, though, likely still contains account numbers, passwords, your social security number, and maybe even compromising tax information. You don’t want that out there.

There’s no need to freak out….since you can follow a step-by-step process to backup your data, permanently remove all personal files from your soon-to-be-recycled computer, and physically remove or securely erase the hard drive.

There are a lot of ways to go about that last one – i.e., clearing the hard drive – and a lot will depend on whether you want to repurpose your old computer, simply recycle it or pass it on to a hard-up school district.

Ways of Clearing the Hard Drive 

It’s really important to back up your data on an external hard drive, flash drive or with something like Google Cloud storage before you wipe the slate clean, so to speak.

Clearing your hard drive really, really limits the chances that you’ll be the victim of identity theft and, if you’re dealing with a company-provided computer, also helps protect the company and yourself against nasty things like legal penalties and possible intellectual property violations. Who wants to deal with that nonsense?

  • Wiping the Slate Clean

Backup and restore features are actually worked right into Windows 7 and Windows Vista, and if you’re a Mac user you can always use the USB connections on the device to backup personal information on external hard drives and flash drives.

After you’ve backed everything up, you can make use of a program like Darik’s Boot and Nuke to wipe your hard drive and transition it along that proverbial assembly line and closer to being responsibly recycled.

If you intend to give your computer away for reuse by, say, a cash-strapped school district, then make sure that you either install a free operating system on it or restore your old computer to factory settings.

Junk King handles e-waste disposal – /contact/

E-Waste Recycling

The field of e-waste recycling is starting to gain more attention, especially from municipalities and consumers. With more electronic devices entering the market every day, and a seemingly endless need to acquire the newest and best model, it’s important for us to safely dispose of what’s old or broken. Read on for an exploration of e-waste recycling and how it works.

What Is E-Waste?

E-waste, sometimes called electronic waste, is another word for discarded electronic items. These items include computers, tablets, cell phones, MP3 players and a plethora of other high-tech devices. They may be broken, or they may still function.

Why Is E-Waste Recycling So Important?

Electronic devices are filled with toxic materials. These include lead, mercury, cadmium and other E-Waste-recycling-Junk-Kng-Sonoma-CAheavy metals. If e-waste is thrown in the trash, it typically ends up in the landfill, where these chemicals can leech into water and soil and poison them. Protecting the environment from these chemicals is one of the key goals of e-waste recycling.

Likewise, e-waste recycling retrieves these metals and other chemicals for future use. Unfortunately, suppliers often mine these substances via environmentally destructive and socially exploitative methods. By re-purposing these substances, you can do your part to discourage destructive, dangerous mining techniques.

How Does E-Waste Recycling Work?

Just throwing your e-waste into the trash means it’ll end up in a landfill, rather than being put through an e-waste recycling process. To recycle your electronic waste, you’ll need to make sure it goes specifically into an e-waste recycling program. Thankfully, many municipalities are recognizing and filling the need for this specialized kind of recycling.

What exactly happens to your device at that point depends on the state it’s in. If your device is still essentially functional — say, if it simply has a cracked screen, or if it just needs an upgrade — an e-waste recycling specialist may just replace those parts and put the device back on the market. If your device is more substantially damaged or is significantly out of date, it may be broken down for parts, or it may be melted down so that the heavy metals inside can be removed and reused.

If you’ve got computers, phones and other electronic devices that meet the definition of e-waste, Junk King can help. We’re pros at hauling away your junk, and making sure it gets where it needs to go. Contact us  today and see why so many homeowners and businesses trust us to help you get your junk situation under control.

Computer Recycling and Management of Sustainable Waste Energy

Computer-Recycling-and-Management-of-Sustainable-Waste-Energy-Sanoma-CANo matter how much high-tech awesomeness your computer is packed with right now, it will eventually stop working — or just become too outdated to be worth powering on. When this happens, you need to figure out what to do with it. Just so you know, throwing it into the garbage isn’t the answer. You need to recycle your computer. Putting together the parts that make up a computer takes a lot of energy. Technology makers use much less energy when they don’t have to dig up fresh raw materials and create new parts. This means that recycling your computer will be a big boon for the management of sustainable waste energy.

But a computer isn’t exactly a plastic bottle or a tin can, so you’re probably wondering just how you can get rid of it in an eco-friendly, safe manner. Let’s take a look at how you should approach computer recycling:

Clean your computer out

Assuming that the power button still works, you’re going to want to do a factory data reset on your device before you even start the computer recycling process. This is because data thieves are lurking around every corner; you need to protect yourself from them by giving them as little as possible to work with.

Also, you shouldn’t assume that all of your data will be safe just because your soon-to-be-recycled computer no longer works. Professional data thieves have the ability to pick apart a broken computer and steal your data anyway. If your old computer is damaged beyond use, then you will need to have the memory removed and physically destroyed. This is a dangerous thing to do, so it should always be done by a professional.

Determine what computer recycling really means to you

As we mentioned earlier, a computer and a plastic bottle aren’t exactly the same thing. These differences extend beyond their basic use and include the recycling process itself. Computer recycling, for example, can mean one of two things:

The most traditional perception of computer recycling — or recycling in any form, for that matter — is to have your old recyclable junk shipped off to a recycling plant, where its parts and raw materials can be re-used. If your old computer is beyond repair, then this is your best — and only — approach to computer recycling.

The other form of computer recycling doesn’t involve a parts processing plant at all. Instead, your old computer would be refurbished and either donated or sold for a super deep discount. This approach to computer recycling usually takes less energy.

Call in the reinforcements when you have a lot of junk computers

When you’re recycling multiple computers, you need to take a different approach. If you’ve got a legion of bulky computerized machines that you need to get rid of, you shouldn’t take on computer recycling alone. Instead, you should seek out a pro junk removal service that specializes in recycling old technology. Not only will they have the tools you need to haul all of your junk computers away all at once, but they will have the resources and know how to take the computers to the right place.

These organizations will also help you identify which computers are salvageable for refurbishing, and which need to be tossed into the processing plant pile.

Are you approaching computer recycling the right way?

You need to recycle your old computer. Because a computer is a complex machine, you will have to take a few extra steps to recycle it correctly. To learn more about recycling your old computers, televisions or anything else, contact a professional junk remover.

3 Rules To Follow To Avoid Making Computer Recycling Mistakes

3-Rules-To-Follow-To-Avoid-Making-Computer-Recycling-Mistakes-Junk-King-Sonoma-CAThe holidays are a popular time for receiving new electronics, especially computers. Once you transfer the data from your old machine to the new, you’ll probably decide on computer recycling for yesterday’s model. Computer recycling used to be fairly easy: remove and smash the hard drive and then dispose of the shell. Today it isn’t quite so simple.

The electronics we use are built with a host of environmentally harmful chemicals such as cadmium, lead, mercury, arsenic and phosphors. When deposited in landfills, these chemicals over time seep into the ground water supply. Proper disposal of electronics, then, is paramount. The good news is that we’re seeing a huge amount of growth in the electronics recycling industry, but the rise of these new companies has also increased the chances of getting computer recycling all wrong. Here are three simple rules you can follow in order to avoid making the most common computer recycling mistakes:

Rule #1 – Use a Certified Recycler

In Sonoma County it is illegal to dispose of electronics with your regular trash. As a result, a lot of companies have sprung up who claim they will properly recycle your computer. The truth, though, is that the number of companies who can actually do so is quite small, so take the time to know who your recycler is.

Finding a reputable computer recycling service isn’t difficult if you know what to look for. Has the company been in business for a healthy length of time? Most importantly, is it certified by either e-Stewards or R2 Solutions – or both? If the answer to both questions is yes, then the odds are good that your data privacy, along with the environment, will be properly protected. Ask your e-waste disposal company about their plant safety record, security, and employee training. Also ask about how it handles and disposes of hazardous materials. The best company to work with is not the one that promises to work with a certified recycler down the road, it is the one that is a certified recycler itself.

Rule #2 – If It Sounds Too Good to be True . . .

. . . it probably is. Have you heard the expression “You can’t afford cheap?” It applies to a lot of what we buy, and it holds especially true for computer recycling. Don’t be duped by so-called free computer recycling services that are popping up all over Sonoma County these days. The bottom line is that responsible computer recycling is not free or cheap. If you choose to use a “free” service, you run two distinct risks:

  • Cutting corners by using a non-certified recycler creates a risk that your electronic equipment will end up in the wrong hands, creating a possible sensitive data breach, as well as environmental degradation.
  • A “free” service makes it likely you will not get the full value you deserve for your equipment. If you’ve decided to get to know your recycler, as spelled out in Rule #1, you’ll rest easy knowing your company is adequately compensated.

Rule #3 – Make a Plan and Stick to It

In February 2013, the National Institute of Standards and Technology issued a Cybersecurity Framework to help create a best practices plan for the disposition of electronic equipment.  As you develop a data security plan, be sure to include protocols for computer recycling and include language that mandates the use of certified recyclers for all IT asset and electronic disposal.

When you’re ready to dispose of your old electronics, follow these three rules and then talk to us about how to best safely and efficiently recycle your outdated equipment.

 

How to Remove the Hard Drive for Computer Disposal

There’s definitely no shortage of opinions when it comes to ways to remove the personal information on your hard drive for computer disposal.

Some experts recommend giving the hard drive to a certified refurbisher while others say that the only way to get rid of your personal information is to take matters into your own hands.

There are security experts who advise consumers literally take a hammer to their hard drive’s magnet platter to obliterate any trace of old emails, usernames, passwords and sensitive financial information.

Hard Drives and Computer Disposal 

A computer’s hard drive is the nerve center when it comes to storing information. This extends to all of the pictures and music that you’ve downloaded (legally…) over the years as well as all of your personal PC preferences and programs.

Even your operating system is localized on your computer’s hard drive. You are probably starting to get a pretty clear picture, if you don’t already have one, of how identity thieves would like nothing more than seizing your hard drive for personal gain.

Whether you’ve decided to destroy your hard drive prior to computer disposal – or prior to going the recycling or donation route – heeding one or more of the rules listed below will potentially save you a ton of hassle later and peace of mind moving forward.

A Professional Hack Job 

In a good way…there are companies out there whose job it is to shred your hard drive and ensure that your personal information doesn’t see the light of day.

You can either mail your hard drive to a company that shreds hard drives, which brings up its own security vulnerabilities, or deliver your hard drive in person to a local shredder.

A shredding service can work to your advantage if you’re a homeowner with a closet full of old computer hard drives, or a business owner trusted with overseeing the personal and financial information of your employees.

Wiping the Slate Clean 

One of the most popular ways by which you can clear your hard drive is with a program that overwrites the existing data with random, jumbled characters.

Free utilities like Active@KillDisk can wipe the slate clean, so to speak, and offer features like true parallel erasing as well as Linux-compatibility for Mac users.

Some people think this option still doesn’t do enough to protect their, or their employees’, personal information, so they enlist the help of a professional refurbisher to get the job done.

Certified Hard Drive Refurbisher 

This would be a good option to take if your computer is relatively recent (i.e., less than five years old) and you’d like to donate your computer to, for instance, low-income families through a non-profit.

Having your hard drive refurbished and eventually reused is an environmentally responsible option as well since it keeps fewer potentially toxic parts in circulation.

Too often the fruits of recycling programs wind up in third-world countries, supporting their development while (unfortunately) causing fresh environmental problems. Going the refurbishing and donation route obviates that problem and keeps old parts in the rotation.

A certified refurbisher is also an excellent option if you’re a business owner who has hard drives with employees’ sensitive financial information on it. Why? Because a certified refurbisher uses foolproof data destruction techniques for guaranteed success.

The Caveman Option

There are some really smart people (and, frankly, some luddites) out there who insist that the only way to keep yourself safe is with a screwdriver, hammer and protective eyewear for the deed itself. While destroying your hard drive’s magnetic platter is definitely foolproof, it’s best done outdoors.

 

Junk King Sonoma
1364 N. McDowell Blvd Ste 8
Petaluma, CA 94954
Hours: M-Sa: 8A-4P

Providing junk removal services to the Sonoma area, including:

Annapolis
Cloverdale
Cotati
Fulton
Geyserville
Glen Ellen
Graton
Healdsburg
Kenwood
Penngrove
Petaluma
Rohnert Park
Santa Rosa
Sebastopol
Sonoma
Windsor
and these nearby zip codes:
94926, 94927, 94928, 94931, 94951, 94952, 94953, 94954, 94955, 94975, 94999, 95401, 95402, 95403, 95404, 95405, 95406, 95407, 95409, 95412, 95425, 95439, 95441, 95442, 95444, 95448, 95452, 95472, 95473, 95476, 95492