Where to Donate Electronics in Bangkok: Laptops, Phones and Computers (and What to Do With Your Data First)

อ่านภาษาไทย

Most Bangkok homes and offices have a drawer of old laptops, phones and tablets that still switch on but nobody uses. If you are wondering where to donate electronics so they help someone instead of gathering dust, the good news is that Thailand has real, free options, both for devices that still work and for ones that are finished. The one thing almost everyone forgets is the data still sitting inside them. This guide covers both.

Where to Donate Electronics in Bangkok

These are established programmes we checked in November 2026. Rules and accepted items change, so read each page or call before you drop anything off.

1. Mirror Foundation: Computer for Children (โครงการคอมพิวเตอร์เพื่อน้อง)

The Mirror Foundation's Computer for Children project accepts desktop computers, notebooks, printers, mice, keyboards, scanners and other peripherals in any condition, including broken ones. Staff check and repair them and pass them to schools in the provinces that are short of computers; parts that cannot be repaired go into e-waste handling. You can drop items at the Bangkok office (191 Soi Vibhavadi 62, Talat Bang Khen, Lak Si, Bangkok 10210; Monday to Friday 09:30 to 18:00, weekends 10:00 to 16:00) or send them by post or courier. The foundation says it can collect from your address for 10 or more computer sets, and companies can email a list of items to [email protected].

2. BMA "Old Computers for New Learners" notebook drive (คอมเก่าสู่คนใหม่)

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration's Education Department runs a notebook donation project for students at BMA schools. You fill in an online form, staff contact you to arrange handover, and the Mirror Foundation services each machine and installs ChromeOS Flex before it goes to a school. It takes notebooks only (not desktops), any brand including MacBooks, as long as the model can run ChromeOS Flex; the project page says around 4 GB of RAM and 16 GB of storage is the baseline. Check the page for the current status before you send anything.

3. Our own free device programme

Data Destruction Thailand also runs a free device programme. Every working laptop or desktop we receive is logged, graded, permanently wiped, given a fresh operating system and given away free to someone who needs one, who just covers shipping. We never resell what we receive, whole or in parts. Devices that do not work are taken apart and sent through certified e-waste recycling, so nothing goes to landfill. You can read where every device goes, or our earlier post on donating your old laptop safely.

If It No Longer Works: Where to Recycle Old Electronics for Free

A dead phone or a laptop with a cracked board is not much use to a school. Recycle it instead of putting it in household rubbish:

• Any of Bangkok's 50 district offices, or City Hall at Sao Chingcha and Din Daeng, have e-waste drop-off points, according to the BMA's Greener Bangkok guide. They take electrical devices, phones, laptops, computers and lithium batteries, but not old CRT monitors, alkaline batteries or light bulbs. Kasetsart University's Faculty of Environment building and Supreme Complex are also listed.
• Your postman. Put small e-waste in a box, write "ฝากทิ้ง ขยะอิเล็กทรอนิกส์" (e-waste for disposal) on it and hand it to the Thailand Post carrier when they deliver to your home, free of charge.
• AIS e-waste points. AIS's "Thais Without E-Waste" project lists more than 3,200 drop points in 76 provinces, including AIS shops and post offices, mainly for phones, tablets, batteries, chargers and small electronics.

We will cover recycling in more detail in a separate guide. Companies with more than a few devices should use a licensed e-waste service with paperwork; our e-waste disposal service handles that together with the data.

Before You Donate: Five Things to Check

1. Does it actually work? Charities need devices that can be repaired at reasonable cost. Include the charger; a laptop without one often cannot be used.
2. Back up what you want to keep. Photos, documents, LINE chat history and passwords. Once the device is wiped, they are gone.
3. Sign out and unlink. Remove Apple ID / Find My, your Google account, Microsoft account, LINE and banking apps. A phone still locked to your account is useless to the next owner.
4. Take out the extras. SIM card, memory card and any USB drives or external disks. The BMA and AIS guides both tell people to remove memory cards and delete data first.
5. Wipe the storage properly. This is the step that matters most, and the one people usually get wrong.

Wipe or Destroy the Data Before You Give It Away

Deleting files or emptying the recycle bin does not remove them; free recovery tools can bring them back. A factory reset is better than nothing, but as we explain in why a factory reset is not enough, it is not always a guarantee, especially on older phones and laptops with traditional hard drives. Your old laptop can hold saved browser passwords, scanned ID cards, tax and bank documents and years of photos. A donated device passes through several hands before it reaches a student, and you have no control over who plugs it in.

What you can do yourself:

• Phones and tablets: make sure the device is encrypted (modern iPhones and most recent Android phones are by default), sign out of all accounts, then use the built-in erase or factory reset.
• Laptops and desktops: use the operating system's full reset with the option to clean the drive, or a proper wiping tool. For an old hard drive you want to keep out of circulation, remove it before donating.

If you would rather not guess, our personal data wipe service does it for you. Choose wipe and return, and your laptop or desktop comes back with the data permanently wiped, a fresh Windows 11 or Linux install and a certificate, ready to donate or pass to a family member; phones and tablets come back wiped and reset with a certificate. If you do not want the device back, working hardware joins our free device programme. You can ship to us from anywhere in Thailand or request a pickup at a Bangkok address. For offices clearing several machines, our laptop data destruction service issues a certificate for every device.

Donating old electronics is one of the easiest good deeds there is, as long as your personal data does not go with them. Get an instant quote or call 082-797-3702, and we will wipe your old laptop, computer or phone with a certificate so you can give it away with peace of mind.

Sources: Mirror Foundation, Computer for Children donation page; BMA Education Department, notebook donation project; Greener Bangkok, How to dispose of e-waste; AIS, e-waste collection channels (all checked 4 Nov 2026).