7 Ways to Get Rid of Unwanted CDs

Recently, a commenter asked how could he get rid of his old CDs? Luckily, Planet Green had an article about reusing CDs, but it didn't have an article about other ways to deal with them. Well, now it does.

Why is this Green?

By selling your unwanted CDs to resellers, you decrease demand for the CDs. Therefore, new copies of the CDs won't have to be produced as often and materials will be saved.

See the next page for more ways to get rid of your unwanted CDs.

Contents

Sell them Online
Trade/Sell Them at Your Local Record Store
Donate them to Charity
Organize a CD Swap Party
Record Over Them
Recycle CDs
Use a Pear to Erase a CD-R

1. Sell them Online

Like DVDs, you can sell CDs online. SecondSpin.com and CashForCDs are just two of the many online buyers available.

2. Trade/Sell Them at Your Local Record Store

Make sure to call ahead before you traipse on down to the record store. If you have a bag full of Vanilla Ice, Insane Clown Posse, Ninety Eight Degrees, Kings X and Ratt, there is a good chance that they will not buy or trade these from you. Don't waste gas. Call ahead.

3. Donate them to Charity

You can donate CDs to the troops. You can donate CDs to public libraries. You can donate CDs to children's hospitals. You can also donate to the Goodwill or Salvation Army. Each of these places will provide you with a tax receipt.

4. Organize a CD Swap Party

Invite your friends over to trade albums that they don't want any more.

5. Record Over Them

If your disc is a CD-RW, you can record over the music that's on the disc as many times as you like. If your disc is a CD-R, you are kind of stuck with whatever is on the disc.

6. Recycle CDs

The CD Recycling Center of America will take those CDs off of your hands and make sure that the materials get used again. Check out these further recycling tips from Treehugger's Eco-Geek.

7. Use a Pear to Erase a CD-R

One guy thinks that he can make a CD-R rewritable by soaking it in pear juice. He made a video. It seems like a long shot, but I don't have the time or materials (a pear) to try this right now, so I'll add it to this list in the hope that maybe there is some truth to this or that science can be advanced in some way by the video.