How do you throw away old CD's? Recycle?

Or, as I should have said in the question, are they just garbage? These are the ones, of course, that no one else will want.

For data CD’s. Destroy the surface. I usually run a scissor blade across them. Or, snap them in half and there is the microwave trick. As @worriedguy is about to tell you. :-)

If they are music cd’s give them to your local goodwill. If they are informational cd’s take them to your local shredder company. (Our city has a yearly document shredding day, where you can watch them being destroyed).

Don’t just throw them away! You have to try the microwave trick. It is awesome!

Put the disk data side up on a coffee mug, set the timer for 5 seconds, turn off the lights in the kitchen, hit “start” and watch the fireworks. Nice.

(That will destroy the data too.)

I use them for targets at the rifle range.

Donate them to Goodwill. It will be more useful to someone else as a music CD than anything else you could possible make them into.

Try these sites:
cd recycling for free
How to Reuse and Recycle Old CDs and DVDs
From a tree hugger
Make-stuff

…also

Microwave, trust me.