

Ask HN: What's the best way to dispose of a huge amount of old floppy disks? - RevRal

Okay, so here's the story.<p>My dad used to run a company that was contracted to program defensive missiles (using some odd language called Ada....). He passed away a long time ago.<p>So, right now I'm at my mom's house to organize his old files.  I uncover a few thousand floppies and spools of magnetic tape.<p>What the hell is the best way to take care of this without going crazy? We're strapped on cash right now, so we can't hire professionals.<p>And I don't want to just shred them. My dad would probably get pissed for doing it the wrong way.<p>Anybody with experience with this?<p>Also, I am backing this stuff up.<p>Thanks guys.
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bhousel
10 Ways to Reuse or Recycle Floppy Disks:
[http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tech-transport/reuse-
recycl...](http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tech-transport/reuse-recycle-
floppy-disks.html)

#1 on the list is send them to Greendisk, a company that takes disks and all
other kinds of stuff too, including the magnetic tape.

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Shooter
I gave a few thousand old floppies to an artist on Etsy. She recycled 100% of
them into art items, and then sent my wife some cool jewelry to thank me for
the raw material. Some of the jewelry was even made out of the floppies I
sent, although you wouldn't know it to look at the jewelry. She also made some
fancy photo frames and some other items.

I just came across the artist's "floppy disc artwork" by accident while
looking around on Etsy, which then prompted the idea to get rid of the old
floppies I had in storage. I'm sure there are other artists who use floppy
discs for art material...

[EDIT: bhousel's post has some better suggestions...the ACT Recycling program
sounds especially neat.]

------
cperciva
_My dad used to run a company that was contracted to program defensive
missiles_

Sounds to me like there's probably classified information there, in which case
step #1 is probably to phone the government and ask them what they want done.

~~~
ryanwaggoner
Speaking as someone who used to have a TS clearance, it's unlikely that they
contain any classified info if they were sitting around at the guy's house.
But the info could be sensitive, or it could possibly (unlikely) have been
classified after the fact, so the advice is probably sound.

~~~
cperciva
_it's unlikely that they contain any classified info if they were sitting
around at the guy's house_

You'd hope that, but it wouldn't be the first time a contractor was careless
about such matters.

