Electronic recycling

We recently took an old computer and a few other broken electronic devices to the Hanover Area High School for the annual Luzerne County electronic recycling. I thought it was a good way to get rid of some junk in an environmentally safe manor as did some other people. Then I read this at Self Defense for Identity Theft :

If you still think that way today about disposing of that old PC, don’t! Yes you want to do the right thing, help out, be conscious of the environment, or any other good reason you may come up with for not just discarding it. But before you take that step, think about identity theft first. Your personal information from the last few years is somewhere on that hard drive. Sure you deleted it, formatted it, cleaned it, but to a persistent thief, they can dig up anything with a little effort, and they do.

And Michael gives us a few hints to protect yourself before you get rid of that old machine. He says you should chop the thing apart and take a sledge hammer to the hard drive then get rid of it.