Old machines use a lot of power, so not good for the climate. My rule of thumb is if it's less powerful than a $90 raspberry pi 400, which uses 10 watts max, it's probably worth e-wasting.

>Old machines use a lot of power,

So does producing a new one:

https://www.networkworld.com/article/752694/computer-factori...

Usually they get recycled. I wouldn't stress about it.

Where is this dream-land? They got dumped along other mixed trash and lay for decades. Same with old, perfectly fine iPads with retina displays.

Still, I wouldn't stress about throwing things out. Stress about initial purchases instead.

So, if you have money, you can throw away as much as you can, right? I have bought loads of Apple tech during 2010s and all of it is trash. Every iPhone (e.g. models from 4 to 7) costs tens of dollars today, down from a thousand. Not only that, they’re basically useless. I have a few iPads 3 (the first one with Retina display), and it’s perfectly fine display, but VLC is the only app that works with it. Also, you can watch YouTube via browser, yet it’s not a pleasant experience. At least my MacBook Pro (pre-retina) works great with Linux, and possibly I’d keep it around as a Linux server, till it breaks. I cannot do anything like that with any of iOS devices that I have. Why?

When I purchased them, I had no idea that would be the case. My perfectly good iPhone 12 mini is already at its last legs (I bet a couple of years), thanks to iOS 26 and the liquid ass. Why is it so? Why should I stress about initial purchases? I’m not that poor and young, sorry, I’m worried about the footprint. And I hope you would one day too.

That is what I mean, stress about the impact at the time of purchase, not at disposal time.

After that, don't stress at all. As you say, you had no idea at the time of purchase, so toss it in the dump and move on.

Around 22% is "recycled" sometimes in disgusting ways:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5r4hFY_oh8

Same story with clothes, paper and plastic recycling, it's just talk and green-washing.

The question is, how much guilt-free landfill waste should each person get to create in their lifetime? Don't say zero.

The problem isn't landfills; it's the toxic substances being spread all over our planet, as seen in the video. Just stop telling people that e-waste is being recycled—it's mostly a lie.

But i can answer you the "guilt-free" part it's really easy:

Don't buy stuff you don't need, or stuff that's just for short-time-fun (Labubu vs. Guitar) ;)

What if you want a Labubu (whatever that is) more than I want a guitar? Clearly we strictly need neither of these things. It would be better to use a more objective measure like mass.

>objective measure like mass

Because 1kg of Plutonium is the same as 1kg of Wood?

I wish AI is used to solve real-world problems instead of creating AI slop, thanks OpenAI/Sora.

you can donate them: https://labdoo.org/ this organization distributes donated laptops with linux all over the world.