Dell Reconnect Finds Charitable Uses for Your Old (and Even Dead) Tech [Charity]

If you're banking on getting a new computer, MP3 player, or video game console this holiday, you may be researching the best ways to recycle your old one. Instead of junking it, though, you can donate it to charity through Dell Reconnect.

While you can repurpose an old computer into pretty much anything, there comes a time when we all just have too much tech in the house and it all just becomes clutter. Hopefully we've taught you that recycling that tech is much better than just letting it head to a landfill, but if you're going to recycle it, you might as well let someone else use it until it dies.

Even if it's already dead, it hasn't reached the end of its usefulness. There are a lot of great charities out there (and we've mentioned quite a few in the past), but a partnership between Dell and Goodwill called Reconnect has found a way to use nearly anything—even dead technology—to contribute to charity. If it's working, you can donate pretty much anything, from monitors to computers to scanners, hard drives, speakers, cables, Xboxes and Zunes, and they'll give it to those in need. If they can't put your tech back into service, though, they'll recycle it for you and Goodwill will put its value toward finding jobs for other people. You'll even get a receipt for tax purposes, which is always a nice plus.

So, while we here at Lifehacker are always looking for ways to repurpose stuff, if you don't have the time or the energy this year and need to give your tech a new home (or if it's broken beyond repair), Dell Reconnect can probably make something good happen with it—just make sure to properly erase everything before you donate. Hit the link to read more.

Dell Reconnect [via The Apple Blog]