How To Recycle CDs & DVDs

Have you got old CDs, CD-ROMs and DVDs hanging around that you no longer want.? Maybe you have replaced many of your CDs and DVDs with Blu-ray discs or digital downloads.

What can you do with your unwanted compact discs?

CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays in Good Condition

If they are in good condition they should ideally be passed on to someone else who can use them.

Give them to friends or family or swap them rather than buying something new to replace them.
Give them away on Freecycle, Freegle and ReUseIt recycling groups.
There are lots of websites where you can turn your old and unwanted CDs, DVDs and Games into cash in one free and simple process. You can get anything from 25 pence up to £3. You can check your items potential value on the website and you can even donate the procedes to a number of well know charities. Some of the best-known are Music Magpie, Zapper and Ziffit
Give them to your local charity shop or to a jumble sale in aid of a local organisation. Be aware that many charity shops will only sell CDs that are in visually perfect condition.

However after the resurgence of interest in vinyl records, some original CDs are starting to become sought-after collectors items.

There are people who collect the earliest CDs produced; some of the very first CD pressings such as ABBA's The Visitors from 1982, can command silly money (At time of writing an original copy went for over £300 on eBay). Look out for CD's made in the early 1980's especially those marked "Made in West Germany" to identify if it might be a collector's item.

*NEW* Recycling Colouring Pictures - Free Printables

How Can I Recycle My Old Spectacles?

Obviously the condition matters in the value of any dics. Famously many of the early Now That's What I Call Music CDs are collectors items, as comparatively few were sold at the time, and many were not looked after. The first CD release, Now 4, is the rarest with mint copies going for several £100's.

What About Those Freebie Discs from the Newspaper?

Now you may be asking, what about the free CDs and DVDs that you find in newspapers and magazines? Check before you donate these to a charity shop; many won't sell them, and at best they will be distributed to the shop staff and volunteers. Otherwise they just go in the bin and off to landfill anyway.

Damaged Disks

If you have free CDs and DVDs or damaged disks what else can you do with them apart from using them as coasters?

Can CDs, DVDs , CD-ROMs and Blu-rays be Recycled?

Both the disks and the plastic jewel cases from disks are 100% recycleable.

Unfortunately however, at present we do not know of anywhere will accept disks for recycling from the general public, and I'm afraid the current advice is that domestic quantities of old disks will not be recycled by most local council household recycling centres, and should be put into your household waste for disposal.

Some charity shops may be able to accept them for recycling, but please ask if they are able to take damaged discs before donating them.

Find Your Local Recycling Information

You Could Get Creative

Of course you may have some ideas on how to reuse them yourself. Gardeners often hang them up in their vegetable patches because the light reflections frighten off birds. They could also make an interesting mobile for a baby's room.

Here are some magnificently artistic and creative ways to reuse unwanted CDs.

And you could, of course, use them to decorate a suit. The record 'Pop Muzik' by 'M', originally released in 1979 was remixed in 1989 and when lead singer Robin Scott appeared on Top Of The Pops he wore a suit completely covered in CDs. Check out the video below. Must have weighed a ton

There is also a growing demand by collectors for original videotapes and audio cassettes, so you might want to check your collection before you decide to recycle your videos and tapes.