zerowaste

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Discussing ways to reduce waste and build community!

Celebrate thrift as a virtue, talk about creative ways to make do, or show off how you reused something!

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JacobCoffinWrites@slrpnk.net

Why it is worthwhile to dissect e-waste -- there are sometimes useful gems therein (slrpnk.net)

submitted 2 weeks ago by activistPnk@slrpnk.net to c/zerowaste@slrpnk.net

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Found laptops on the street fully abused and often smashed to bits. Recently pulled a 160gb SSD out of one. That’s worth keeping, as well as the RAM, often.

TV tuners/media players: they sometimes have internal hard drives. I recently pulled a 320gb 2½″ HDD out of one. Even though that’s likely too small to serve as someone’s laptop system, anything bigger than 120gb is big enough to store a copy of the whole Debian system including all apps (5 blu-rays merged these days).

All DC powered electronics: it’s useful to cannabalize the female barrel connector. There are many universal PSUs with a collection of male tips, but never female tips. The female tips are useful for making your own barrel adapters, instead of cutting and soldering your OEM PSUs.

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[–] foxymochakitten@slrpnk.net 6 points 2 weeks ago

Do you think you could put together a guide on what to look for in these parts for someone who doesn't really know anything about tech? I'd really love to learn and I feel like ripping open a busted laptop would be a great way to start, but I don't even know what "female barrel connector" or "OEM PSU" means. "160gb SSD" though, I know that one. That's so many damn photos. My partner always shoots JPGs because storage is expensive but I always shoot RAW if I can...