DIYParts.org is a grassroots effort that enables and ecourages the sharing and trading of computer parts that are still useful, but would otherwise mostl likely end up discarded.

Christian Einfeldt, who is part of the project wrote in an email that one of the goals of the project is to get unused older personal computer systems to parts of the developing world and to people who have thus far been sidelined in the “digital revolution”. The old hardware can be made useful by loading it with open source operating systems like GNU/Linux.

Christian also writes:We will have
cities listed soon, and then neighborhoods. The idea is that old
computers are worth less than the cost of shipping them, so we need to
organize [people] to be able to help each other share
the hardware that would other wise be going into landfill.”

Similar online efforts, like Freecycle have been very successful at synchronizing recycling on local levels.