How do I recycle cds?

Is it possible to recycle unopened CDs?

• Through some searching, I've found some companies that will recycle the actual CD discs and jewel cases separately, but I have boxes upon boxes of unopened CDs, still in their ...show more

• Answer:

  Are these CD's still likely to be functional? If so, they have not been completely used yet. How about selling or donating them? There are still a lot of folks that have CD players or CD playing computers; not everyone has fully converted to other media. Most greater areas and cities have at least one shop that sells retro music and media. You might approach them with a cash sale or trade in mind; if your purpose is more about disposal costs and/or landfilling your waste stream, then just plain giving them to a shop to sell shouldn't hurt too much. A lot of gardener and fruit tree types like to use CDs as a bird deterant too; you might find a willing taker among the gardening folks if you're willing to give them up for free. Speaking of giving away your "collection", you might think about donating them to a place like Goodwill or Salvation Army too. Some public libraries operate CD collections which are still borrowed at a reasonable rate. Some hospitals have libraries of CDs and loan out CD players to their patients; music can do wonders in the healing and relaxation process. I would suspect that there are old folks homes out there that would take your collection. I'm sure that there are plenty of other potential homes for your CDs - depending on the nature of their content. Another place you might find a ready home for your CDs is on freecycle.org Or, you could try Earth911 which lists places and, the last time I actually looked through it would respond to individual e-mails too.