Screen Saver: The Fun Way to Recycle Your Old Monitors

So you want to recycle your old monitor?

Glad you stopped by.

This post covers the very thing that’s brought you here.

As electronic waste recycling gathers pace due to growing awareness of the harmful effects of discarded e-waste, shockingly, many individuals still need to be more open towards recycling their old monitors.

Screens are made of glass. How toxic a simple glass can be?

While glass is not toxic, computer screens aren’t made just of glass. Tons of other chemical and electronic components make a computer monitor work like a computer monitor.

Things like lead and mercury.

While the latest LED monitors are devoid of such hazardous chemicals, older CRT monitors and LCD screens contain toxic stuff and must be handled carefully. Here is a useful guide on preparing your old computer monitors for recycling.

Go check it out then come back and look at these fun ideas to repurpose your computer monitor into new stuff.

Recycle Your Old Monitors and LCD Screens

Monitor Recycling in 10 Fun Ways

Let’s see how we’re going to do that.

1. A Secondary Display

Image Source: freepik.com/DC Studio

Ever thought of dual monitor setups? A great way to consider CRT monitor recycling is to turn it into your second monitor. This second monitor can be multipurpose. You can use it to extend your screen space, dedicate it as a media display, or fix it as your Zoom meeting screen.

The biggest upside of a dedicated secondary display is you won’t have to interrupt your workflow to concentrate on the new task.

2. A New Stick PC

Turns out, there are a ton of things people are doing plugging in their old monitors with gum sticks or stick PCs. What is a stick PC, you ask?

It’s a low-cost, single-board computer about the length of a gum stick, and can be used for various purposes, including learning how to code, build computers and other computer-related hardware, do home automation, and much more.

Raspberry Pi — a tiny PC for big things. Prices start from $15.

Whether or not you’re into computers, a gumstick PC such as Raspberry Pi can show you a low-cost, low-risk, and fun way to try your hand at PC making and have a bit of fun in the process.

3. An Arcade Machine

Are you into retro gaming at all?

If so, you might be in luck. The retro gaming renaissance is upon us and if you were looking for a chance to revisit your childhood or have an authentic experience of what it feels like to be a gamer kid in the 80s, this is your chance.

Image Source: Reddit

Snatch up an old CRT monitor, hook it up with Raspberry Pi or any other stick PC, and set up your retro gaming console. Since older games look better on CRT monitors than the latest flat screens, CRT monitor recycling as a retro arcade display will be a fun idea to try.

4. A Smart Home Dashboard

Consider turning your old monitor into a smart home dashboard that can display useful stuff like date and time, daily news, calendar events, weather forecasts, and more.

Image Source: freepik.com

The really neat part about this DIY dashboard is that you can display all this info on an amazing photo, giving the dashboard a soothing and polished look.

If you’re a tech geek, you can probably turn your smart home dashboard to do even more.

People have turned theirs into a kind of home security system hub — a central place, from where to look at all their home security or smart home devices.

Image Source: Reddit

5. Connect with a Streaming Device

Give your old monitor a new life as a dedicated screen for your favorite TV shows and movies. If your large LED TV is hogged by the rest of the family in the house, an old monitor can become your device for your streaming sessions.

Connect a streaming device like the Chromecast, Apple TV, or Roku device to use your old computer monitor as a stream-only screen.

Image Source: freepik.com/DC Studio

But if you have an older monitor like a CRT screen, you may have to technically maneuver it so it can work perfectly as a streaming television. Some easy-fix adapters that can move from HDMI to VGA functioning will be the best. For a more detailed tutorial, check out this Hackaday post.

6. A Smart Mirror

Another great project everyone’s been raving about is building a magic mirror with an old LED monitor. This mirror displays any information you set it to. Most people choose dates and times, calendar events, and news updates.

Image Source: Amy Lee Bennett’s DIY Smart Mirror

Michael Teeuw popularized them back in the day (2014) and they’ve recently seen a surge in the tech-DIY neighborhoods. Go, give them a try.

7. A Pet Bed

This project will need an old CRT monitor or a retro TV.

Image Source: Instructables

Image Source: mikis-design.blogspot.com

Using a lot of tape, some cardboard, and some funky paint, you can create a fun bed for your pet. Sure, you can buy one from the store, but where’s the geeky fun in that? Show your pet some extra TLC by building them a DIY monitor bed.

8. A Digital Display

You can also turn your old monitor into a digital display for photos and videos. This display would work as a dedicated single-function program where you won’t be able to get anything extra out of the old monitor.

Image Source: freepik.com/master1305

But as a digital display, it will work perfectly and can be a great medium of entertainment when you hold parties or have events planned for the family.

9. A Storage Cabinet

The pet bed idea can be played with in many different ways. If an old monitor can turn into a pet bed, maybe it can turn into a storage cabinet too, or a planter, or a magazine rack, a chalkboard, or even a trash bin!

Image Source: core77.com & yankodesign.com

Explore all these ideas and see which one you like the best. For me, a trash bin from an old CRT monitor has a pretty fun and ironic ring to it. What do you think?

10. Into a Fish Tank

We have talked about the fish tank idea before when we talked about creating crafts from wasted electronics.

Image Source: core77.com & pinterest.com

But it’s a popular idea and bears repeating. If you like fish or want to gift a younger sibling, friend, or your child a fish tank, why not make one from old computer monitor recycling?

Won’t cost a lot and can be a great craft project to work with friends and family.

Be responsible: Recycle your old monitor

When talking about residential recycling, we inadvertently focus a lot on recycling laptops and phones. The very critical discussion about recycling old monitors, LED TVs, or old screens remains in the background because of the misplaced belief about their comparatively lower environmental impact.

But as we have talked at length about the harmful impacts of old monitor e-waste here, it should leave no doubt in a conscious consumer’s mind that monitor recycling is a must. While you can certainly call our free e-waste pick-up service to take care of this electronic junk, we hope you’ll read this article first and get creative with your less-than-useful tech.