#upcyclying

Of course, if you're unable to stay on modern os's due to the bloating, I'm morally bound to suggest turning to linux.

Other than that, many of the hardware can be easily configured into working standalone devices.

Some useful ones for the day-to-day user include:

Display -> Standalone monitor

HDD/SSD -> External hard drive

Webcam/Mic -> USB based, can be standalone

Speakers -> Bluetooth/Wired Speakers

None of these projects need that much technical knowledge; The maximum level of skill you would need is basic soldering, and even then it's optional.

Seeing the amount of industrial waste piling up is tempting, when you are short in resources. Why not digging into this waste to fulfill your needs ?

One first concern about this approach is the risk of toxicity. Most of this waste can be considered as toxic, and should therefore handled cautiously, or detoxified - which can be quite difficult.

A second concern is the sustainability of such an approach. Presently, it may be interesting to get rid of this waste, as it piles up and threathens human and ecosystem health.

However, producing successful products out of such waste may be problematic over the long term. This waste being now seen as a resource, success may drive the production of a kind  of waste we just wanted to get rid off. Moreover, if this waste is itself the result of the non-renewable exploitation of a resource, we end up by driving the depletion of a non-renewable resource.

I guess that the answer to this issue is likely to be an integrated approach including:

Fix the quantity of waste to process by replacing the initial and problematic production process by a benign one based on renewable use of renewable resources.

Develop an alternative process to produce the product you produce out of the waste. When the waste stock is exhausted, move to the new production process, who should also be a benign one based on renewable use of renewable resources.

It is often seen as sustainable to use waste as a resource, and I always felt uncomfortable with that.

Waste coming from a process based on non-renewable resources is not a renewable product either.