If You’ve Received The Gift Of New Gadgets, Recycle The Old Ones Or Pass Them On

Many of you are now enjoying new gadgets, whether it’s from a winter holiday present or post-holiday clearance sale self-gifting. If your new item replaced an old one, don’t throw the old one in a drawer: consider recycling it or passing it on to an organization that re-uses technology. Yep, there really is someone out there interested in your old game console and conference swag flash drives.

CNET brought together a list of useful places to send your old electronics other than the recycling bins outside your local Best Buy. For example, you can send your old console or unwanted games to the Get-Well Gamers Foundation, which passes them on to children’s hospitals to keep them supplied with a steady supply of video games.

RecycleUSB takes your drawer full of old USB drives, loads a version of Linux designed for kids’ educational use on them, and sends them to students all over the world. Finally, RecycleHealth takes old fitness trackers and recycles them to people in the community who need to be more active but can’t afford one.

The easiest ways to donate your old tech [CNET]

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.