February 7, 2002 | Read Time: 2 minutes
A San Francisco charity hopes its new press campaign and research project on computer recycling will put more usable donated computers in the hands of nonprofit organizations and schools while keeping older machines out of landfills.
For more than five years CompuMentor has maintained a list of organizations that provide refurbished computers and groups that accept computer donations.
Jim Lynch, the organization’s senior research manager, says that maintaining that list made the organization realize that the computer recycling field has serious distribution problems.
“Nonprofits and schools were having a hard time getting the equipment, and donors were having a hard time finding the place to put their donations,” explains Mr. Lynch, who heads up the new project. “It was very hard for either side to get their needs met.”
CompuMentor, working with the Microsoft Corporation, in Redmond, Wash., kicked off its new program to improve computer recycling with a media campaign to educate consumers on how they can donate their old computers in a way that benefits nonprofit organizations.
More than 600 stations across the country ran a radio spot the group created on the subject, and two newspapers and two television stations in the Bay Area did stories on computer recycling.
The organization urges donors to contribute their old computers with the operating systems intact and explains how they can remove personal information from their machines.
Donors often remove operating systems before giving computers away because they want to make sure they don’t pass on any information about themselves. But, says Mr. Lynch, that causes problems, because old computers need old operating systems and software, and it is difficult and expensive for nonprofit organizations to find old versions.
The organization also offers advice to charities on how to avoid accepting equipment that won’t meet their needs.
In addition to raising awareness about the dos and don’ts of computer donations, CompuMentor is starting a year-long research project to study computer recycling in the United States and identify ways that donated computers can be used to bridge the digital divide in poor neighborhoods.
Mr. Lynch quotes National Safety Council figures estimating that 63.3 million computers will be taken out of service this year and that fewer than 15 percent of those machines will be reused or recycled for parts and material.
Says Mr. Lynch, “It’s a serious environmental problem, and it’s an amazing waste of a digital-divide resource.”
To get there: Go to http://www.techsoup.org/recycle.
