- About the MacRecycleClinic (MRC)
- Contact Info
- Where is MRC located?
- What happens with donated Macs?
- What happes with donated iPads/iPhones/Cellphones/iPods?
- What happens with donated Chromebooks?
About the Mac Recycle Clinic non-profit:
If you have an Intel or Apple Silicon Macintosh or Chromebook to donate to our recycling effort, we ask that you send us an email (via the contact page) with info on what you have to donate. We only accept donations by appointment.
Ask us about donating older Power PC Macs. Unfortunately printers or other computer equipment should be taken to the Montgomery County Transfer Station or to a big box store like Staples or Best Buy. We are unable to do this for you.
Contact Info:
Please use our “Contact Us” page for any questions you might have.
Phone: 301-593-4004. (Note we generally not able to answer phone messages in a timely manner.)
What happens with donated Macs?:
iMacs ready for donation.
Macs that are donated to us are thoroughly checked and cleaned. Hard drives are securely wiped of all data and an appropriate version of the Mac OS is installed (but nothing lower than Catalina – OS 10.15.6. Older Macs may be turned into Chromebooks.)
If the machine can not be made to work we will take out any reusable parts, hard drives, memory, batteries, sometimes the power supplies and optical drives and send the hulk to Montgomery County’s Processing Facility and Transfer Station the closest county recycling center to us.
What happens with donated iDevices?:
iPads are in demand by local schools so we try to provide factory reset units as we have machines. Cellphones of all types are returned to factory settings and have their SIM cards removed. They are then donated to a local women’s shelter for use as 911 machines (they do not require data plans). iPods are donated (when we have them) to individuals looking for a simple music player.
What happens with donated Chromebooks?:
Chromebooks used at home can easily be reset to factory specifications and returned to a new user via a referral. Unfortunately, Chromebooks associated with a network (primarily school networks) can’t be “cleaned” by Power Washing (which returns a Chromebook to factory settings). A school IT professional needs to remove the network affiliation from the Chromebook. We have other ways to “fix” this but it is expensive and usually not worth the cost. As noted above, we can also turn older Macs (primarily laptops) into Chromebooks.
