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You've just replaced your four-year-old computer with a new 1.4-GHz system, but you haven't got a clue what to do with your used PC.

You're not alone. Average computer users buy a new system every three to five years and, if they don't give their old system away, they generally relegate it to the storage closet or they simply dump it out with the trash.

But there are better solutions for your outdated equipment. Just ask Brandon Martin, a 16-year-old from Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, whose life has been made a little easier with the timely donation of a secondhand PC.

Martin suffers from hydrocephalus, a condition that causes fluid to accumulate in his brain. His resulting disabilities--vision problems and paralysis in one hand--made him a target for bullying in school. After classmates beat him two years ago, his mother pulled him from school to teach him at home. But she needed a computer that would fit her son's specific needs.

Enter Computers to Help People, a Wisconsin-based group that matches donated computers with people who need them. CHP's Carl DuRocher set Martin up with a used Pentium system that included a mini keyboard to accommodate his one-handed typing and software to enlarge letters on the screen.

"I'm very thankful that we were able to get a computer that works the way it does," says Martin. "It's helped me greatly. In addition to schoolwork, I can keep track of my schedule and e-mail friends."

Across the country thousands of individuals like Martin, as well as schools and charitable organizations, are in need of computers. Yet every year millions of PCs are tossed into landfills or closets instead of being put to good use.

In 2002 an estimated 63.3 million desktop systems will be taken out of commission, according to a study by the National Safety Council. That number doesn't include the millions of notebook computers, personal digital assistants, and cellular phones that will fill up dustbins, too.

We pay a hefty price for all of this electronic waste. When buried in landfills, excessive amounts of the toxic substances that PCs contain--such as lead, mercury, and cadmium--could conceivably contaminate water supplies and cause cancer, birth defects, and damage to body organs.

But you don't have to let your aging systems gather dust or taint groundwater. You can donate them to a worthy cause or recycle them. (See "Attic Alternatives" on the next page for resources to help you with either option.)

In an informal poll of 6000 readers that we conducted on PCWorld.com, about 9 percent reported donating their last outdated system to a charitable organization. (Only 3 percent recycled their PC.) The good news, however, is that 36 percent gave their system to a family member or friend, thus extending the life of their machine.

Of course no solution will keep every PC out of the trash (used systems eventually break down and electronic recycling is still inefficient and costly), but your efforts might help turn the mountain of electronic waste into a molehill. And if you give your system away, your donation could help narrow the digital divide for people who can't afford a PC.

Charitable Computing

Constellation Energy, the holding company for Baltimore Gas & Electric, has been donating old PCs to charitable organizations for two years. Some of those systems have gone to YMCAs in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C., area to be used by children in after-school programs and day-care centers. Bruce Norton, an environmental scientist with Constellation, says that donating is not only good community relations, but also cost-efficient. Storage space for unused systems can cost a company thousands of dollars a year.

And electronic-waste handlers generally charge $25 to $50 per machine to pick up old PCs and recycle them. The nonprofit organizations that Constellation works with, however, haul off everything for free. "Not only does this save us a significant amount of money each year, it puts those old computers out in the community that we serve," Norton says.

"The need is out there," says Dr. Yvette Marrin, president and cofounder of the National Cristina Foundation, an organization that pairs individual and corporate donors with charitable groups and agencies around the world that are seeking computers to train people who are poor or disabled. "Before they pick up the phone to call a waste management firm, [people should] look around their community. I guarantee there is a need for those computers."

Marrin, a special-education teacher, started NCF 18 years ago with Bruce McMahan, the father of one of her students. In the last few years, the foundation has placed over 25,000 secondhand computers. NCF offers its service free to donors and recipients.

To donate, you fill out a form on NCF's Web site stating your PC's processor speed and memory (not every system is suitable for donation; see "Past Their Prime" below.) NCF will try to match you with a charity in your area. If your company is disposing of hundreds of PCs at a time, NCF will try to match you with a nonprofit organization that will pack up the systems and take them away for free.

But private nonprofit organizations aren't the only institutions in need of equipment; schools are surprisingly PC-deficient, too.

Schools In Need

You'd think that a school in Silicon Valley--ground zero of the technology revolution--would be teeming with the latest and greatest computers, right? Well, until recently, PCs were as scarce in the classrooms of Anne Darling Elementary School in San Jose, California, as they were in the homes of the school's many low-income students.

"We get very little funding for technology," says Richard Soos, a tech teacher at Darling, who notes that the only computers the school possessed were a few woefully outdated systems in its computer lab.

Soos posted a plea for computers at KidSource OnLine, a parenting Web site, but he had only faint hope of getting a reply. Before long, however, the San Francisco office of a national bank (which wishes to remain anonymous) offered to donate 80 of its retired PCs. A number of other donations followed, and now every classroom at Darling has six multimedia PCs.

"People think...the schools are doing okay, they're buying the latest PCs, there's no need for me to donate mine. But that's only true for affluent schools," says Karen Dillon, president of KidSource.

KidSource has placed 125 used computers in the past few years, but Dillon says she could place many more if she had them. The site is often flooded with requests for equipment, such as the appeals from a school for deaf children in Encinitas, California, and from a school in Arkansas suffering from budget cuts.

Hundreds of small, local nonprofit groups around the country place used equipment in their communities, too. Lazarus Foundation, formed by a PC user group in Columbia, Maryland, has refurbished more than 2500 systems for educational institutions and nonprofit organizations, including Head Start programs.

Lazarus works with Lockheed Martin's corporate office to distribute its old PCs. Lockheed employees also volunteer to visit the schools to help get the computers networked and to instruct students about how to use them. "It's such a delight to see the enthusiasm in people, especially kids, when you deliver their computers," says Wayne Croft, a purchasing representative at Lockheed Martin.

Project ReBoot in Stone Mountain, Georgia, works with disabled kids and adults. The group recently provided PCs for an ALS patient to communicate with his family, and for an accountant who had suffered a stroke and needed to work from home during tax season.

You can check your own city's official Web site for charities seeking PC donations in your area. Or phone local schools and organizations directly. But call before you drop off equipment: Many organizations, such as some Goodwill Industries outlets, have been inundated with outdated and broken PCs, and no longer want used computers.

Past Their Prime

Indeed, some systems are simply too old to be useful for anything other than recycled parts. They may be incompatible with contemporary software, or they may be too slow to allow users to surf the Web. Every organization has different criteria for what they'll accept.

Schools tend to seek, at a minimum, Pentium machines with color monitors, Windows 95 capability, and 28-kbps modems. To donate to NCF, your system must contain at least a 486 processor with at least 16MB of RAM.

Most organizations won't accept broken PCs, but others welcome nonworking systems and use them for technician training programs. The Chicago-based Computers for Schools Association accepts broken PCs, but donors must pay to ship their equipment to Chicago.

Few Recycling Options

What if your PC is too old to give away? The majority of discarded machines end up in county landfills. In most municipalities, such dumping is legal for individuals, but under current Environmental Protection Agency regulations, company-owned electronic waste must be recycled.

Given how toxic a computer's contents can be, recycling is clearly more environmentally sound. States are awaking to concerns about PC wastelands and the potential effects of toxins--California and Massachusetts banned landfill dumping of monitors earlier this year.

But while most metropolitan areas have programs for recycling paper, plastic, glass, and motor oil, computers have been left out of the equation--mainly because few recycling plants are equipped to handle electronic products, and the methods for recycling such items are time-consuming and costly (see "Spinning Garbage Into Gold"). Furthermore, few plants accept individual cast-offs from consumers, preferring to traffic in volume jobs from PC makers and from corporations.

All of that may change soon. A year-long pilot recycling project, initiated by the Electronic Industries Alliance, is due to start in October in select states. The project will test recycling models for municipalities, retailers, and consumers (who will be required to pay a drop-off fee) to determine the best methods for future recycling plans.

In the meantime, you still have a few options to keep your PC out of the waste stream. Some computer makers and retailers already offer or plan to offer programs that accept PCs and components for recycling. Best Buy stores have launched a program at select locations that lets you turn in most old products for free recycling (you'll need to pay $10 to $15, however, to recycle a computer monitor or a TV).

Hewlett-Packard and IBM already run recycling programs. For fees of $9 to $30, they'll recycle whatever you send them. Other manufacturers offer rebates on new equipment in exchange for old machines (see "Attic Alternatives.")

In the future, though, you may not have to pay a manufacturer to take back its outmoded equipment. The European Parliament recently voted to draft legislation that, if passed (by early next year), would require electronics manufacturers in European Union member countries to take back and recycle the products they sell and to pay for house-to-house collection of those items.

In the United States, San Francisco supervisors have passed a similar resolution for that county, and the California state legislature is being urged to pass a statewide law, too.

Everything Old

Recycling is a good way to reduce the volume of electronic waste that gets dumped into landfills each year. And if your computer is beyond repair, that solution may be your best option. But until PC recycling becomes more commonplace, you can still do good with your old PC. As long as your machine works and can satisfy someone else's needs, why not try giving it away first?

Despite the number of computers sold in the United States each year, we're still far from realizing the rallying cry of "a computer in every home." But even one donation can make a difference and add years to your PC's life span.

Judy Heim is a contributing editor for PC World; Frank Thorsberg is a freelance writer in San Francisco.