Electronics Upcycling

ELECTRONICS UPCYCLING FAQ

CHECK OUT THE OTHER POSTS ON THIS BLOG FOR DETAILS ON REPAIRS AND UPGRADES GOING BACK OVER 10 YEARS

- What's the story?

I've been tinkering with circuits for over 40 years and have an MSc in microelectronics, and a few years ago realised I could combine this with saving the planet. Basically I'm Greta Thunberg with a soldering iron.

- Saving the planet?

Well every electronic item kept out of landfill reduces the amounts of dangerous 'forever chemicals', getting released into the environment. By repairing items or stripping out most of the reusable parts this reduces what ends up in landfill and ensures the components go into the correct recycling bins, such as hard plastic cases.

- Don't the council do that?

Up to a point, but information has emerged about huge amounts of European electronic waste being shipped to Africa and Asia where it continues to damage the environment and people's health, especially the women paid a pittance to manually dismantle these items.

- Okay, I get the point. What do you get out of it?

A sense of satisfaction in helping the environment as well as local people. From time to time I am given something interesting I'll repair and keep for myself like this DAB+ radio that needed a fair bit of TLC and a new aerial and knob from the spares box.

- Ahh, so you're selling stuff?

Absolutely not, I have a full-time job and luckily don't need the money. Not only that, but I cycle my own stuff on where the upgrade has cost me a few quid, such as this netbook converted into a Chromebook, which had a RAM upgrade.

- What platforms do you use?

I prefer Trash Nothing because it has private messaging and I want things to go to people who need them, but I also use Facebook and X groups.

- What don't you take?

Mobile phones for privacy (GDPR) reasons and most printers because I'm fed up getting covered in ink, but they do yield up useful parts so never say never.

- My noisy washing machine?

No, I can't move that, but if you take it to a scrap yard you will get a few pound for it!

- Speaking of privacy, what about Hard Disk Drives?

I completely erase HDDs by using random overwriting. Then I put a red mark on them to verify they've been erased. This means any data cannot be recovered.

- Nice, could you help me get my wedding photos off my busted laptop?

No guarantees, but I'll try and if I can all it'll cost you is a pen drive to put them on.

- Could you repair my television or teas maid?

I could, but I can't because I don't have insurance and if it blew up you'd sue me. I can help with advice and spare parts though, used at your own risk.

- And you upcycle laptops?

This really started during the pandemic when it became clear that there were young people who were trying to study for exams using a phone. I started collecting old laptops and turning them into Chromebooks for school and university students.

Selection of recently upcycled laptops turned into Chromebooks and passed on.

- One last question, why Chromebooks?

Google released ChromeOS Flex a few years ago which is free and will run on almost any 64-bit computer even with just 2Gb of RAM. This brings old laptops back to life long after the Windows version is no longer supported and won't run properly on the computer. If you can use the Chrome browser, you can use a Chromebook.

- Thanks.

You're welcome.