Millions of computers are taken out of service in the United States every year. Many of those machines still have useful lives and could be put to work in schools, nonprofit organizations and in the homes of individuals with disabilities. Our organization's mission is simply to help people and companies connect with organizations that are seeking computer equipment donations.

We firmly believe it doesn't matter which nonprofit does the actual recycling, it matters more that good equipment is saved from the trash pile and given to a group to reuse.

We encourage individuals and corporations to think about passing used computers along to nonprofits that will refurbish and donate them to other organizations. There are many nonprofit computer recycling groups across the United States.

In addition to numerous nonprofit computer refurbishing organizations in the US, there are other groups that help potential donors find people seeking computer donations.

• The ReUseIt Network - "The ReUseIt Network is an on-line forum that serves as a tool to make connections between community members who want to help each other, themselves, and their environment. In a disposable society where many items are discarded long before they have actually outlived their use, The ReUseIt Network helps get things from people who have them but don't want them to people who want them but don't have them."
• Freecycle.org - "is a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills."

Our home page lists requests from schools, nonprofits and individuals with disabilities. If you have equipment to donate, please review the lists for your state. If you've got good, working equipment, please contact the donation seekers listed in your local area to arrange transfer.

Local donations are encouraged whenever possible because it simply may not make sense to ship heavy and bulky older computer equipment. This is especially true given today's increasing fuel costs and we encourage you to think even more locally than ever.

Used computers don't age well like good cheese or fine wine. An older computer is more like a piece of ripe fruit that rapidly loses its desirability and usefulness. We urge donors to pass used equipment along as soon as possible after it is taken out of service.

We encourage potential computer equipment donors to evaluate carefully the items they are thinking about passing along. The first thing they should ask themselves is if they would want to use the items in question. Recently retired computers could be very useful unless essential parts have been removed. If it would cost a nonprofit or a school hundreds of dollars to refurbish, the donation may not be worth accepting.

If you have equipment that needs refurbishing, please review our list of nonprofit computer recycling organizations. Also visit Givespot.com or TechSoup to review their lists of places to donate computer equipment.