Trash man saves surprisingly good gaming rig from landfill - and it even powers up

You know what they say: one man's garbage may be another's still decent graphics card, worth a few hundred pounds. So say the refuse collectors.

A garbage truck driver, known as 'Siezio,' shared a surprising treasure hoard via Reddit. They revealed they had salvaged the remains from a once-high-end gaming computer (via TechSpot). The sanitation specialist found a GeForce RTX graphics card in the trash, along with an AMD Ryzen threadripper 3970X processor and a water damaged PSU.

It gets even wilder. Siezio, who wisely decided that the PSU would be a lost cause for the system, cleaned the other components with isopropyl and let them dry over a period of two days. Siezio had picked up a new PSU, and in the interim, some storage. He then tried to power up the computer system. It worked.

Siezio deleted their post after it went viral, and they may have been concerned that their employers would not approve of them picking through trash. They did say that it's not uncommon to find old hardware when they do trash collection, but that these systems are often damaged beyond repair or museum pieces. It's a rare find to stumble upon hardware that is only five years old.

We rated the Founders Edition Nvidia GeForce RTX RTX2080 Ti when it was launched a little more than four years ago. In fact, we've recently loaned out our original review sample to a friend to act as a makeweight until the RTX50-series launches. It makes me dizzy to see what was once a high-end, $1,200 piece of kit thrown away like old socks. The march of time is truly merciless.

The silicon pieces have at least found a good home. But there's one thought that keeps coming to mind, and that is the issue of e-waste. I don't mind anyone upgrading, but as Siezio's blog post showed, this kit was not old and still perfectly functional. Assuming that the hardware's owner has not suffered any tragic events, I am curious about the circumstances of the trashing.

Chromebook churn is a worrying trend in disposability of tech. The fact that the UK's recycling efforts for e-waste are slowing down, rather than increasing, doesn't help my climate catastrophe flavoured dread. Even though I understand that going to a CEX (British Trade-in Tech/Games Store) or other second-hand seller is a hassle, it's better than throwing old hardware in the trash. The consumer is not the only one who has to be responsible.

The EU parliament is becoming more aware that greenwashing will not save the Earth. Manufacturers must address the long-term end-of-life of a product once it leaves the user's hands or, in worst-case scenarios, lands on a landfill. I'm not certain that water-soluble circuit boards can save us, but it's an important start.