Sunday is Earth Day and this year’s focus is ending plast pollution. But there are other ways to help the environment while saving a lot of money.

 

When a computer dies it usually winds up in a landfill somewhere and you will be shocked to hear how many computers are just thrown away every year. David Gray of Computer Technologies and More knows first-hand why computers die and how to make yours last longer.

“Most of the time people are affected by malware, spyware. Virus type stuff.”

A first step in keeping your computer is to avoid malware by using an anti-malware program.

“Right now the biggest thing I see, other than malware, in slowing down or bogging it down is physical hard drives going bad.”

Older hard drives spin over 5-thousand times a minute. Eventually that’ll cause a problem. Gray says replacing spinning hard drives with new Solid State or SSD drives will extend the life of any computer.

“By replacing a machine today that’s slow because the hard drive is starting to wear, you can get a brand new machine and sometimes increase the speed 10 times of what it was when it was brand new.”

“So instead of throwing those things in the garbage or the dump where they shouldn’t be, you can extend the life on this.”

According to the EPA, Americans trash around 255 thousand tons of computers every year that winds up in landfills.

“There’s a lot of lead in this, a lot of chromium thats in here. you have a lot of stuff that really should not pop up in the landfill.”

Gray says we should also blow out the dust in our computers every few months, make sure the computer has good airflow. Don’t block the air vents with papers or books…

Doing those things will extend the life of your computer, help the environment and keep your money in your pocket.