In a world where many of us buy new technology the moment updates are released, we have more electronic waste than ever before. Perhaps your old iPad is collecting dust somewhere right now, and needs a purpose. The good news is that there are plenty of unconventional ways to reuse an older iPad to prevent it from being thrown into the iPad graveyard. You can test out open-source illustration tools, or use your iPad in many productive ways to avoid waste.

9 Portable music player

Touchscreen tunes

iPads work similarly to the iPhone — any music apps or players you can access from your phone, or even a DAB radio, you can probably access from an iPad. This is true even on an older model, depending on which apps you want to use. Turning your old iPad into a portable music player can repurpose it, and also save battery on your phone if you're not using it for music streaming.

Plenty of people in the modern day still use a traditional radio, but for those of us who upgraded to streaming platforms, our phones or laptops are often the only way we listen to music these days. An iPad can offer another alternative to a radio or a streaming app from your phone. Use apps like Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube from your iPad, prop the tablet up somewhere in your home, and have a dance party.

Even older iPad models will likely have access to some kind of music player. You may need to stay connected to Wi-Fi to have a seamless experience.

8 Digital notepad

Sustainable note taking

As a journalist on-the-go, I often use my iPhone to take notes in meetings or conferences. Save for the hand cramp, this isn’t the most inconvenient way for me to note my thoughts. However, if I need to access PDFs or other research documents, or doodle some notes, a phone becomes much less convenient for the job. A laptop is almost always too big for the space allowed, plus it's noisier to write notes with, while an old iPad is the perfect in-between tech for the job.

My iPad can connect to my Notes app, so I can write notes when offline, and they’ll update through my iCloud when I get connectivity, making it easy to move my digital notes to my laptop for heavier work later on. The same can be said for Google Docs or plenty of other note taking tools.

As a sustainably minded person, using a digital notepad is my preference compared to paper notes. Depending on how old your iPad is, you’ll have access to a variety of different note-taking apps and tools, whether they include only typed or also handwritten notes, or offer the ability to add drawings, images, or other documents for more extensive note taking sessions.

7 Car media hub

Entertainment for your passengers

Whether you have children or not, having an entertainment hub in your car can never be a bad thing. If you do have kids or often drive kids, you can set up an old iPad for backseat entertainment to keep them from asking “are we there yet?” throughout every journey.

Load up your iPad with films through a platform like Plex, or maybe you have something like an Amazon Prime Video subscription that lets you download items which can be accessed offline. You could even offer the iPad as a car gaming console — but don’t blame us if the kids in the back fight over whose turn it is to play.

You can also reuse your iPad for drivers’ use in a car. Most modern cars have built-in media systems that appear like giant tablets in the dashboard’s center. If your car’s a little out of date, like your iPad, you can fashion a way to present your iPad and use it as a “built-in” satnav, music player, or even a dash cam — though you’ll likely need an iPad with data access, high storage, or cloud storage to make these work.

6 Entertainment for your kids

Games or movies with parental safety

You can get tablets designed just for children, but if you already have an older iPad lying around not doing much, it makes just as much sense for your children to get some use out of it. Not only will your children be grateful to have a new toy, but you’ll be saving money on buying a kids’ version, as well as preventing your iPad from gathering dust on a shelf.

You can set up family permissions through your Apple accounts, ensuring your children’s safety if using an iPad that is connected to the internet. Through these permissions, you can set screen time allowances, ensure they can’t download (or worse, buy) any apps or items, and rest safely in the knowledge that you’re supervising their play.

Not only are iPads great for gaming, digital drawing, and other fun ways your kids can use creative AI tools, but there are also infinite educational apps that make learning enjoyable.

5 Digital photo frame

Display memories

You could spend money on a dedicated digital photo frame, but it’s one project that’s fun to make use of your old screen-based hardware. If you’re more DIY-minded, you can make a Raspberry Pi digital photo frame, or if you have an old laptop rather than an old iPad, you could use that for a digital photo frame instead. But luckily, with an iPad, you can easily turn it into a digital photo frame to display neatly in your home. The best part is that it’s not very complicated.

You can download specific apps, such as LiveFrame, which will do all the work for you. Or you can change settings on your iPad itself to display fullscreen images and not to let the display go to sleep — a simplistic way to display your digital photos at home.

4 Dedicated eReader

Read and save paper

An older iPad model isn’t good for many heavy-duty tasks, but it is still good for reading. When compared to a Kindle, which is built exclusively for reading without the bells and whistles of an iPad, an old iPad eReader makes a lot of sense.

If your iPad isn’t too out of date, you should be able to install a variety of eReading apps, like eBoox or Yomu. If it happens to be too old even for those more basic apps, you can find free PDF versions of your reading choices and simply open them in the Files app. While that option won’t always be the best display, it works fine if throwing your iPad away is the alternative.

3 Central hub for home automation

Home security and settings in one place

More and more people are running their homes with automated smart tools. Usually, these are accessed from apps on your phone, but before you know it, they’re taking over your personal device. Not only that, but some apps don’t work quite so well when they’re on multiple people’s phones — including my house’s heating app, which displays different metrics on various people’s phones, despite all being linked to the same home account.

Having a central hub for your home automation allows you to free up space on your personal devices, and means that you won’t need every housemate or home dweller to have all the apps at once.

You can display your iPad central hub for easy access to anyone who needs it, much like your home’s thermostat on the wall.

Having one place for everything will make life simpler. The downside with this one is that if you’re using an older device, you may eventually lose access to updates for the specific apps you may need, making the entire purpose void if your iPad is too out of date.

Some people also use an iPad as a makeshift home security camera, so if you display your iPad home hub in a prominent place, you could also benefit from a camera feed of your home for safety.

2 Second monitor display

Increase your screen’s real estate

One of the most obvious uses for an old iPad is to use it as a second monitor alongside your computer screen. Whether you use a laptop or a desktop, having access to a second monitor opens a world of breathing space and productivity.

Since iPads are already portable, you can benefit from moving your second screen iPad anywhere that suits you near your computer. If you’re using it as a screen extension, place it next to the screen, but if you’re using it as a holding place for other windows, put it a little out of reach to avoid distractions.

Using an iPad as a second monitor may only work if your iPad and computer are updated to a specific OS version. For example, Apple's Sidecar doesn’t work on older models to allow screen mirroring between iPad and Macs.

1 Remote access to your PC

Access your desktop away from home

A newer model iPad works well as a portable, great-working tablet with you for errands out of the house. But if your iPad is getting on in age, you can still utilize its computer power from your PC or Mac. Turn your iPad into a remote desktop which you can take out with you.

Similar to using your iPad for screen mirroring to create a second monitor, you could set it up for remote access to your PC, which allows more flexibility in comparison. This technique may take a bit more trial and error and the technology know-how to get it all set up, but it’s a fun and functional project to work on.

Don’t let your iPad go to the Apple Store in the sky

iPads are productive tools which can open up new techniques for working, whether it be writing or drawing. Due to how quickly technology becomes redundant, an old iPad is likely to be found in your home at some point. Old doesn’t mean defunct, so there are still plenty of productive ways to repurpose your old iPad and give yourself a helpful new tool, while preventing electronic waste at the same time.