A working computer, laptop, or phone is far too useful to recycle, and Australia has organisations that will refurbish it and pass it to someone who needs it. This guide covers where to donate, the one step you must take before you do (wipe the data), and what to do with devices too old to donate. Reuse keeps a working machine in service and helps close the digital divide.
If a device still works, donate it; if it is dead or very old, recycle it. Working computers, laptops, tablets, and phones can go to tech-refurbisher charities such as WorkVentures, to schools and community programs, or through reuse initiatives you can find on Planet Ark's directory. Before you hand anything over, wipe your data properly, because donating a device does not remove your responsibility for what is on it. For a business retiring a fleet, donation is possible but the data and logistics usually make certified reuse through buyback the cleaner path. The rest of this guide covers each of these in turn.
Donating beats recycling for anything with working life left, and not just because it feels good. Reuse keeps the full value of a built device in service and avoids the large manufacturing carbon cost of a replacement, and in Australia it directly helps the households, students, and community groups on the wrong side of the digital divide. Recycling recovers the materials; donation preserves the whole machine and does social good on top. This guide is the multi-device version; if your question is specifically about a laptop, our guide on what to do with an old laptop walks through that decision in detail.
One framing worth holding onto as you read: donation is a form of reuse, and reuse is the top rung of the waste hierarchy, above recycling and well above landfill. So the order of preference for any device you are finished with is to keep it in use if you can, then donate or resell it so someone else can, then recycle it responsibly if it genuinely cannot be used, and never bin it. Most of this guide is about that second rung, getting a still-useful device into the hands of someone who needs it, safely and with your data removed.
This is the step almost every "where to donate" article skips, and it is the one that matters most. When you donate a device, your photos, emails, saved passwords, and files go with it unless you remove them first, and handing a device to a charity does not transfer away your responsibility for the data on it. Refurbishers do their own processing, but you should never rely on that; the data is yours until you destroy it.
For a personal computer, laptop, or phone, the safe baseline is to back up anything you want to keep, sign out of every account (email, cloud, app stores, and any two-factor apps), and then run a full factory reset with device encryption turned on. Remove SIM and memory cards from phones and tablets. That combination makes the data unrecoverable for a normal refurbisher while leaving the device fully working for its next owner. If you want the detail on why a simple delete is not enough, our guide on how to securely wipe data from an old laptop explains it.
If the device belonged to a business and held customer or company data, a factory reset does not meet the bar. Independent studies have found around 42% of second-hand drives still held recoverable data (Source: Blancco / Kroll Ontrack), and under the Privacy Act the obligation to destroy that data, with penalties of $50 million or more for serious breaches (Source: OAIC), sits with the business. Business equipment should be sanitised to the NIST 800-88 standard with a certificate before it goes anywhere, including to a charity. That is what our data destruction service provides.
Once the data is dealt with, these are the main routes for a working computer, laptop, tablet, or phone in Australia.
A long-running Australian social enterprise that refurbishes donated computers, laptops, and tablets and passes them to people and communities who need them, supporting digital inclusion. It accepts donations from individuals and businesses, and arranges collection for larger quantities. Reported to divert around 120 tonnes of e-waste from landfill a year.
Connects donated goods, including technology, with a large network of registered charities and schools through its digital-divide program. A useful route for businesses with quantities of equipment that want it to reach vetted community organisations.
Community-focused refurbishers take donated devices, restore them, and pass them to people experiencing disadvantage. Regional programs such as ITShare in South Australia do the same locally. Availability and accepted devices vary, so check the specific program before you send anything.
Planet Ark's Recycling Near You lists community reuse and donation programs by area, so you can find a refurbisher, charity, or repair initiative near you. The quickest way to see every local option in one place.
Schools, community centres, men's sheds, and not-for-profits sometimes welcome working equipment directly, so a quick local ask can find a home for a device close by. For mobile phones specifically, if you cannot find a reuse home, MobileMuster recycles them responsibly. And if a device still has solid resale value, selling or trading it in is a legitimate form of reuse too, covered in our old-laptop guide.
Refurbishers do wonderful work, but they are not a disposal service for broken gear, and sending them dead equipment just shifts your recycling cost onto a charity. The rule of thumb is simple: donate what someone could realistically use, and recycle the rest responsibly. A donation is genuinely useful when the device still powers on and works, is not so old that it cannot run current software, and is reasonably complete, ideally with its charger. Devices that are cracked, non-working, or more than about ten years old are usually better sent for recycling, where their materials are recovered.
The other practical question is how to actually get the device there, and the answer depends on quantity. For a single device or a few, most refurbisher charities accept a drop-off at their premises, and some offer a mail-in option, so a quick look at the specific organisation's donate page tells you which. For larger numbers, several will arrange a collection; WorkVentures, for example, organises pickup for quantities of around 25 or more, which suits a small business, a school clear-out, or a community group pooling devices. Matching the method to the quantity saves everyone time: do not post a single laptop to a program built for bulk, and do not try to hand-carry fifty machines that a provider would happily collect. If you are unsure, contact the charity first and tell them what you have and roughly how many, and they will point you to the right channel.
| Device | Donate or recycle? |
|---|---|
| Working laptop or desktop (recent) | Donate. Wipe first, include the charger. Ideal for refurbisher charities and schools. |
| Working tablet or smartphone | Donate or trade in. Factory reset, remove SIM and memory cards, sign out of accounts. |
| Old but working monitor or peripherals | Donate if reasonably current; otherwise recycle. Keyboards and mice help complete a donated setup. |
| Cracked, dead, or very old device | Recycle. It is not useful to a refurbisher, but its materials are recoverable. See how to recycle electronics. |
| Business fleet with data | Sanitise data to NIST 800-88 first. Then donate, or recover value through buyback. |
Five minutes of preparation makes your device safe to give away and genuinely ready for its next owner.
Copy photos, documents, and anything you need to another device or the cloud. Once you reset the device, it is gone, so this comes first.
Sign out of email, cloud, app stores, and any two-factor apps. On phones and tablets, turn off the account lock (such as Activation Lock or a Google account lock) so the device is not tied to you, or the next owner cannot use it.
Take out the SIM and any microSD or memory card from phones, tablets, and cameras. These hold data and are easy to forget inside the device.
Reset the device with encryption enabled. This is the baseline for a personal device. For business gear that held sensitive data, use certified data destruction to the NIST 800-88 standard instead.
Include the charger and power cable, and any working accessories. A complete, ready-to-use device is far more useful to a refurbisher and its next owner than a bare unit.
It is easy to think of a donated laptop as one less thing in the cupboard, but at the other end it is often the difference between someone being connected and being left behind. Digital access is now essential for school, for finding and applying for work, for managing health and government services, and for staying in touch, and a meaningful number of Australians still go without a reliable device or connection. That gap, usually called the digital divide, falls hardest on low-income households, many older Australians, people in regional and remote areas, and newly arrived migrants and refugees.
Refurbisher charities exist precisely to close that gap. When you donate a working computer, a social enterprise wipes and refreshes it, then places it with a student who has been sharing one family device, a job-seeker who needs to get online to apply, or a community organisation running digital-skills classes. The device you have finished with can restart someone else’s access to education and work. That is a genuinely better outcome than recycling a machine that still had years of use in it, and it is the reason reuse sits at the very top of the waste hierarchy.
For a business, the same logic scales up. A fleet refresh can put dozens of refreshed machines into schools or not-for-profits at once, and doing it through a certified process means the good deed does not come with a data risk attached. It is corporate social responsibility and responsible disposal in a single action, with the documentation to prove both.
A handful of avoidable errors turn a good intention into a headache for you or the charity. Here is what to watch for.
Refurbishers are not a free recycling service. Sending broken or very old equipment just moves your disposal cost onto a charity. If it does not work or cannot run current software, recycle it instead.
The most serious mistake. Handing over a device with your data still on it exposes your accounts and, for a business, breaches your privacy obligations. Always wipe first, and for business gear, wipe with a certificate.
A phone or laptop still tied to your cloud account is useless to the next owner, because it stays locked. Turn off Activation Lock or the equivalent and sign out completely before you donate.
A device with no way to power it is much less useful. Include the charger and cable, and label anything that is not obvious.
Accepted devices vary by program. A quick check with the specific refurbisher or school saves them the cost of handling something they cannot use, and saves you a wasted trip.
Reuse sits above recycling in the waste hierarchy for a reason: it preserves everything already built into the device. Figures from named sources.
The environmental case is that most of a device's lifetime carbon is spent making it, not using it, so keeping a working laptop in service for another owner avoids the roughly 300 kg of CO2e it would take to build a replacement. The social case is just as real: a refurbished computer in the hands of a student or a job-seeker who could not otherwise afford one is worth far more in use than in a recycling bin. Donation captures both, which is why it is the first option to consider for anything that still works.
Businesses often want to donate retired fleets to schools or charities, and that is a genuinely good instinct. The complication is data and scale. Every device that held business or customer information has to be securely sanitised and documented first, and a batch of fifty machines is a logistics job, not a car-boot drop-off. Handing unwiped business equipment to a charity is a data breach waiting to happen, and it is the business, not the charity, that carries the liability.
The clean way to do it is to have the fleet collected and processed by a certified provider: every device logged under chain of custody, data destroyed to the NIST 800-88 standard with a serialised certificate, and then the working machines directed to reuse. In many cases asset buyback is the better route still, because it recovers value you can redirect, including to a cause of your choice, while guaranteeing the data side is handled and documented. Either way, the data is destroyed with evidence before anything leaves, which is the part a direct donation skips. Talk to our team about handling a fleet responsibly.
The questions people ask most about donating old computers, laptops, and phones in Australia.
Working computers and laptops can go to tech-refurbisher charities such as WorkVentures, to device-donation platforms like Good360, or to community refurbishers and schools near you, which you can find through Planet Ark's Recycling Near You reuse directory. Wipe your data first, and include the charger if you can. Devices that no longer work are better recycled than donated.
Yes, always. Donating a device does not remove your responsibility for the data on it. For a personal device, back up, sign out of all accounts, remove SIM and memory cards, and run a full factory reset with encryption on. For a business device that held company or customer data, a reset is not enough; it should be sanitised to the NIST 800-88 standard with a certificate before donation.
It should still power on and work, be recent enough to run current software, and ideally come with its charger. Refurbishers can handle minor wear, but cracked, dead, or very old devices are not useful to them and should be recycled instead, where the materials are recovered. When in doubt, ask the specific charity what they accept.
Yes. Working phones are welcomed by refurbisher programs and are a great donation because they are small and useful. Factory reset the phone, remove the SIM and any memory card, and sign out of your cloud account so the device is not locked to you. If a phone is too old to reuse, MobileMuster recycles phones responsibly.
Donate anything that still works, and recycle what does not. Reuse sits above recycling because it keeps the whole device in service and avoids the manufacturing carbon of a replacement, roughly 300 kg of CO2e for a laptop. Recycling only recovers the raw materials, so it is the right choice for equipment that has genuinely reached the end of its useful life.
Yes, but the data must be destroyed and documented first, because the business carries the liability for it, not the charity. The safe approach is a certified provider that collects the fleet, destroys the data to the NIST 800-88 standard with a certificate, and then directs working machines to reuse. Asset buyback is often better still, recovering value that can be redirected while guaranteeing the data is handled.
It can depend on the organisation and the nature of the donation, so it is best to ask the receiving charity whether it can issue a receipt and to check the treatment with your accountant. The environmental and social value of reuse stands regardless of the tax position.
ITC destroys the data to NIST 800-88 with certificates, then directs working equipment to reuse or recovers its value through buyback, so your business can give back without giving away its data.
