Most go to a tech recycler. They pay their client a pittance for the old equipment, then they refurbish/resell it on places like eBay. Yes, the SSD is often destroyed, and usually the mounting bracket with it. But the rest is fully functional and readily available.
If you want to see this firsthand, just go to eBay and search for “Thinkpad T490”. These are about 5 years old now, and at the end of the corporate lifecycle. They were also a very popular corporate device, and very rare for individual consumers. You will see an absolute ton of these, and mostly from recyclers. But they originally came from places like Coca-Cola and Chase.
I’m self employed and bought a T480 last year for work. Still runs like a dream with pop os, only downside is that it started complaining about the third party battery I bought.
Most go to a tech recycler. They pay their client a pittance for the old equipment, then they refurbish/resell it on places like eBay. Yes, the SSD is often destroyed, and usually the mounting bracket with it. But the rest is fully functional and readily available.
If you want to see this firsthand, just go to eBay and search for “Thinkpad T490”. These are about 5 years old now, and at the end of the corporate lifecycle. They were also a very popular corporate device, and very rare for individual consumers. You will see an absolute ton of these, and mostly from recyclers. But they originally came from places like Coca-Cola and Chase.
I’m self employed and bought a T480 last year for work. Still runs like a dream with pop os, only downside is that it started complaining about the third party battery I bought.