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there is also a charity in oregon called Freegeek. its a non profit organization that recycles and reuses old pc's. and this is how they do it

1. users donate old computers to the org

2. then they sort the components and sort out the ones that are usefull and box them

3. the old stuff goes to get recycled, the silicon, chips, metal, ect can all be recycled for a slight profit. the monitors go to hazardous waste facility.

4. the usefull componets go to building, where they train people how to build the pc's and how to install linux via the network.

5. nicer stuff goes to the second hand store where its sold for a light profit (my machine is an 800mhz machine i bought there for 50$)

6. then the people recieving the computers go to a class teaching them how to use thier new computers which are typically P2 400 machines

this is all done by a non-profit that provides computers to low income people. any person can get a free computer in exchange for building 6 comptuers or donating 24 hours vollenteer service, and they make enough profit there to hire staff and interns(usually 18-20 yr old kid-geeks).and also have classes about things like PHP and the like.

so thats why at freegeek the motto is "helping the needy get nerdy"

there is also a charity in oregon called Freegeek. its a non profit organization that recycles and reuses old pc's. and this is how they do it

1. users donate old computers to the org

2. then they sort the components and sort out the ones that are usefull and box them

3. the old stuff goes to get recycled, the silicon, chips, metal, ect can all be recycled for a slight profit. the monitors go to hazardous waste facility.

4. the usefull componets go to building, where they train people how to build the pc's and how to install linux via the network.

5. nicer stuff goes to the second hand store where its sold for a light profit (my machine is an 800mhz machine i bought there for 50$)

6. then the people recieving the computers go to a class teaching them how to use thier new computers which are typically P2 400 machines

this is all done by a non-profit that provides computers to low income people. any person can get a free computer in exchange for building 6 comptuers or donating 24 hours vollenteer service, and they make enough profit there to hire staff and interns(usually 18-20 yr old kid-geeks).and also have classes about things like PHP and the like.

so thats why at freegeek the motto is "helping the needy get nerdy"

Actually, sometimes they do have a Unix geek around, who'll load a Linux distro and hold a class to teach them how to use it...well, at least in Portland, Oregon: FreeGeek, "Helping the needy get nerdy."

It would be nice to see other cities and communities (and indivduals) doing the same instead of sending "obsolete" computers and parts to the landfill.

Not everybody is a geek, neither do they want to turn their goods consumption into a political fight.

But geeks do exist, as well as people who wish to turn everything into a political fight.

Another reason is, computers eventually get old. Some people like to tinker, even if they aren't a geek. When your computer gets old, buy a new one with the "latest and greatest" MS OS, and use your "obsolete" computer for fooling around with that Linux thingy everyone is talking about.

Why not if you're just going to junk it anyway?

Or hey, donate it to Free Geek and they will install the free OS and give it to someone who otherwise cannot afford a computer. Get a good tax write-off too.

(Posting randomly through Meta-Moderation.)

The PDX job market is really tough. Which is a shame, because Portland is a really amazing city to live in.

Prior to the "national nosedive" of the tech economy, Portland was bustling with activity... especially on the hardware/tech/manufacturing side of things. After the "national nosedive" a huge segment of the workforce lost their jobs, just like everywhere else in the country.

To give you an idea of the job market here... Here are some anecdotes detailing the job searchs of a few real people I know personally, who recently moved to Portland.

To give you hope: I spent a full year looking, and eventually found an amazing job at a nonprofit music recording studio . Results are not typical, YMMV.

My friends moved here last June and both found jobs at Powell's City of Books, and then another, better job, at a local university.

Many people who were in the tech industry have switched fields. I was looking for programming jobs, and at some point I became so desparate for interviews I tried to work as a car salesman.

The "Hotbed" that the article discusses, is mostly not really about tech employment it's about wonderful portland nonprofits !

Such as FreeGeek which teaches people to build computers, then gives them the linux machine they build.

It is likely that this virus has been assembled for the purpose of defaming the Linux developers by spammers, SCO, or others. Your behavior will influence whether or not it succeeds in this mission.

Thus, I urge all persons who have sympathy for Free Software, Open Source, and Linux:

• Do not cheer on attacks on the SCO site. By doing so, you falsely implicate our community in the attacks, in the eyes of outsiders who read your words. Our community believes in freedom of speech, not silencing our opponent's speech through net attacks. We will defeat SCO using the truth, not by gagging them.
• Publicly deplore the attacks as an attempt to defame us, and not an effort of our community. Show others this notice.
• Continue to fight SCO, using all legal means at your disposal. Show others the analysis of SCO's ongoing fraud at Groklaw.net and elsewhere, and explain to them your own experience as a participant in the Free Software community.
• Continue the visible presence of Free Software as a force for good in the world by producing excellent original software for everyone's free use and deploying it wherever possible. Promote these projects to the press and public as you carry them out. Do what you can for other public-good projects such as schools and non-profit organizations. FreeGeek.org is an excellent example of how to carry this out.
• Show others by example that our side always takes the high road. When they see a low-road sort of action like denial-of-service, spam, or stock fraud, they'll know who to blame.

Remember that your actions count. You are ambassadors of our community.

Bruce Perens <bruce@perens.com> (U.S.) 510-526-1165
Version 2, January 27, 2004.

The master version of this notice is at http://perens.com/Articles/SCO/DOS/
Please check that location for a more recent version. You may re-publish this material. You may excerpt it, reformat it and translate it as necessary for your presentation. You may not edit it to deliberately misrepresent my opinion.

On January 26, 2004, a new virus became rampant. I have read reports that the virus payload has two purposes: to install a remote-execution back-end of a type commonly used by spammers to redistribute email, and to perform a denial-of-service attack on SCO's web site.

Denial-of-service attacks via virus have been a common trick of email spammers. They were first used to take out some of the anti-spam blacklist sites. Several of those sites had their (non-spam-related) business so heavily disrupted that they closed the doors of their anti-spam projects rather than be attacked again.

The Open Source developers are a target of spammers. We are the creators of most high-profile anti-spam technology. For example, SpamAssassin started out as, and remains today, an Open Source project. The predominant mail delivery programs of the Internet are Open Source projects such as Sendmail and Postfix, and thus most efforts to spam-proof those programs are Open Source as well. This is important, because it gives spammers a reason to defame us.

SCO also has a reason to defame us, as part of their stock-kiting scheme. We have assembled ample evidence that they have lied under oath in court. Such a company would not balk at attacking their own site in order to paint their opponents in a bad light.

Thus, it is likely that this virus has been assembled for the purpose of defaming the Linux developers by spammers, SCO, or others. Your behavior will influence whether or not it succeeds in this mission.

Thus, I urge all persons who have sympathy for Free Software, Open Source, and Linux:

• Do not cheer on attacks on the SCO site. By doing so, you falsely implicate our community in the attacks, in the eyes of outsiders who read your words. Our community believes in freedom of speech, not silencing our opponent's speech through net attacks. We will defeat SCO using the truth, not by gagging them.
• Publicly deplore the attacks as an attempt to defame us, and not an effort of our community. Show others this notice.
• Continue to fight SCO, using all legal means at your disposal. Show others the analysis of SCO's ongoing fraud at Groklaw.net and elsewhere, and explain to them your own experience as a participant in the Free Software community.
• Continue the visible presence of Free Software as a force for good in the world by producing excellent original software for everyone's free use and deploying it wherever possible. Promote these projects to the press and public as you carry them out. Do what you can for other public-good projects such as schools and non-profit organizations. FreeGeek.org is an excellent example of how to carry this out.
• Show others by example that our side always takes the high road. When they see a low-road sort of action like denial-of-service, spam, or stock fraud, they'll know who to blame.

Remember that your actions count. You are ambassadors of our community.

Many Thanks

Bruce Perens

I'm thinking of starting a PC recycling business because most trashed PCs these days are still acceptable performers.

Free Geek in Portland Oregon does this as a non-profit. One of the keys to their success is lots of trainable volunteers, because they reward volunteer hours with a refurbished computer. Another key is that businesses and individuals who donate old computer systems get receipts for their charitable donation (but it is up to the donor to determine the value of the donation). When some area business upgrades, they rent a U-Haul truck to bring the old computers to Free Geek. It's an interesting thing to see.

RTL text entry in OS X doesn't work so hot for non-Hebrew languages, it seems. My translators (I work for a nonprofit translation firm) have never seemed to get along very well with any Apple RTL text entry methods (mmm... worldscript) at all. I am aware of one guy who seems to be pretty happy with OS X, but he's a graphic designer and a decent coder, right?

It sure doesn't seem like OpenOffice is localized in Farsi, or even really has Farsi input support. A quick search of the discussions on the site mainly reveals the gripes of farsi-speaking folks with how OOo handles RTL stuff, and "It would be great if you could also add Farsi to the Arabic language family supported when it is activated." Um.

A couple of posts up, someone was asking after dual-localized systems. Can someone KDE-knowledgeable sound off? Can it switch languages on the fly? Or would a dual-boot be the best solution? I might approach the folks at freegeek if they wanna collaborate on low-end dual-language systems for Farsi-speaking refugees, if this thing is as promising as it looks.

freegeek is a non-profit that recycles and refurbishes donated computers.

I live in Portland, OR. and I've used Free Geek. They have reasonable prices for the return of things dangerous to the environment, like monitors. They also run some great programs as well.
http://www.freegeek.org>

If you're in Portland, Oregon, take it to Free Geek - They break down computers into various recyclable materials, and if its not TOO old, they may keep it, and use its parts to supply the Build Your Own Linux Computer program! Pretty cool if you ask me.

Free Geek charges $10 / monitor to cover the cost of shipping them to a recycler that can break them apart safely. People (and businesses) bring in their old systems and leave with a receipt that's of use at tax time. It is up to the donator to estimate the value of his donation.

Free Geek runs three programs that are kind of interesting:

• A, for Adoption program: do 24 hours of volunteer time and you earn a Freak Box (lot's of high schoolers in this program)

  Freak Boxen are currently spec'ed as: 200 - 233 Mhz CPU, 96 Mb ram, 3 - 4 Gb HD, NIC, sound card, modem included, Debian as the OS. Volunteers get a four hour orientation to common home computering under Linux, a working system, and follow-up support.

• B, for Build program: assemble five computers from salvaged parts for Free Geek's programs, then you can assemble a sixth one for yourself
• C, for Collaborative Technologies programs: Debian systems, support, and training are provided to area non-profits like charities and churches to move them away from the costs of proprietary systems.

Here's the link again, in case you missed it in the parent: Free Geek

The Build program is a kick. Building systems from salvaged parts gives is giving me a whole different perspective.

In Portland, OR, there is Freegeek: www.freegeek.org.

They take all kinds of computer equipment. They refurbish what they can and recycle the rest with "responsible vendors" - meaning places that don't just ship it off to China.

Drop-offs are free, except for monitors, which cost $10 because of the difficulty in handling all the metals and toxic materials in monitors.

People can also volunteer there in their different programs and get "free" computers for their work.

If you're in the Portland Oregon area, check out Free Geek. www.freegeek.org.

They recylce/reuse old computers and build new ones out of old parts. Some of these they give to nonprofits. The rest, they give to the the volunteers who work there, learning how to build computers.

Under one program, you sort, identify, and diagnose parts and after 24 hours of work, you get a computer. Under another, you assemble (after being trained) 6 computers and you get to keep the 6th.

I don't know if anyone else does this kind of thing.

Umm, hello? This is a good time for the "Insensitive Clod" trademark. I currently have my desktop, a server, and -2- other fully functional computers. I don't need all this, I also volunteer my time at FreeGeek, a place that builds computers, and then gives them away to low-income folks.
I'm currently in the process of refitting my old server to give to a friend who is a single mom, living in some -very- low income government funded housing. For $10/mo she can get dial-up, on dialup I downloaded hundreds of mp3's off napster when it was around. For the additional $30 she can get a paid Kazaa account. I fail to see the point in your argument.

The internet isn't restricted to people with "luxury" cash anymore.

Don't forget about FreeGeek in Portland, Oregon and the Alameda County Computer Resource Center. The take donated equipment, recycle some and install Linux on the less antiquated computers for interesting projects and donation to needy individuals.

FreeGeek has an interesting concept: anyone who volunteers for 8 hours can take one of the Linux boxes home and take classes on how to use it.

There's a small profit to be made on scrap and precious metals that can be stripped out of old computers, which is part of the reason these non-profit organizations can sustain themselves. They don't charge for computer donations, but monitors are such a pain and hazard to dispose of properly there's a fee involved.

If anyone wants to start up something similar in Seattle, email my username at my homepage domain.

OK, let's slow down a bit. Even if the "M$ loses $50 on each Xbox" is true, that $50 is less than a water molecule of a drop in the bucket for a company whose PROFIT last year exceeded Apple Computer's GROSS ANNUAL REVENUE. If you want to spend your money to put M$ down, try making a contribution to a linux-orientied org like Free Geek, or contributing to the legal fund of somebody suing based on the federal trial. Your $300 might actually DO something that way. As for a company buying 10,000 Xboxen to cluster them...OK, so it's cheap hardware, but come on...it's not THAT cheap! Not to mention, any company looking to do that can already negotiate a massive volume discount with just about any vendor they choose.

FreeGeek, in Portland, Oregon, does a good job of recycling. I've visited their facility a couple of times - they have rooms full of computers, drives, monitors. They have bins in the back of the building for scrap metals, etc., whatever they can't make into a computer for someone else, they try to recycle, responsibly. In fact, I think that's why they have to charge money to accept monitors from people, because of the losses they incur in getting them recycled properly (shipping them to remanufacturers, etc.)

Everyone please list similar efforts in other cities, if possible.

FreeGeek, in Portland, Oregon, does a good job of recycling. I've visited their facility a couple of times - they have rooms full of computers, drives, monitors. They have bins in the back of the building for scrap metals, etc., whatever they can't make into a computer for someone else, they try to recycle, responsibly. In fact, I think that's why they have to charge money to accept monitors from people, because of the losses they incur in getting them recycled properly (shipping them to remanufacturers, etc.)

Everyone please list similar efforts in other cities, if possible.

Regarding the boxes. They are all donated either to ACCRC in Oakland or FreeGeek in Portland. We spent the last several weeks going through all the old lower end boxes they had and trying to make workable boxes out of them. Because we were getting together 235 computers we lowered our standards from what ACCRC or FreeGeek normally will send out. The boxes range from 100 mhz to 333mhz P I's and II's. Our goal at accrc was to get 64 megs of ram but freegeek doesn't have quite the resources that accrc gets from the bay area so they used 8meg edo simm's which means the box only gets 32megs total. All of the boxes have NIC cards, 1 gig or better hard drives, and a video card. There were sound cards in a bunch of them but we didn't have the time to go through and configure them. The same goes for modems, we actually tried to add modems but if kudzu didn't find it we just left it in there unconfigured and moved on to the next box.

The final setup we used was based on a netinstall / net boot system that the freegeek folks have put together called lessdisks. After a little pain recompiling the kernels to make sure we had support for all the random ethernet cards we got the install process really streamlined. We'd make sure the box had a hard drive, ram, video, and ethernet. Then we'd pop in the netinstall disk. It boot up using grub and our kernel would just nfs mount from a local server. Everything else was pulled over the network. We had scripts for formatting the hard drives which just set everything up with boot, swap, and one big main partition. On the server we had a clone of a server which was used as the base for each install. After everything was copied over we ran a bunch of scripts which tried to detect all the hardware. We then had like 4 questions which we need to answer on each box to detect the sound card, video for x, and mouse. This process made doing a couple hundred installs MUCH easier. Because we were finishing up the software configuration at the same time as we were rolling out boxes we have another option in the lessdisks install to do an rsync update. This let us fiddle with the spanish configuration and setup until two days before we packed everything up on palettes.

We used ICE for the window manager, Rox as a desktop, and KOffice for the basic apps. KDE, Gnome, StarOffice, and Mozilla were all way to bloated for this class of machine.

If you're in the Bay Area or Portland and are interested we will be working on sending more shipments of computers to south america in a few months. Please send me an email, evan at indymedia.org if you want to be notified when we start.

I hate to break it to you buddy, but perhaps you should read the article before starting your trolling. Free Geek is helping with this project. It's even on their news page .

Have a good day and better luck next time.

I don't think you can place a clear label on Indymedia, link you can't place a clear label on all open software users. We aren't all commies, and we know that.

Indymedia is so heterogenous, that you need to judge individual projects, like this one, if you want to decide to support them or not. They don't have leaders that make up big plans, they are more like lots of local groups that do what they think is good.

And maybe you haven't read the other comments, but Free Geek is supporting this action - so helping them could also mean helping this project ;)

Indymedia is not the kind of organization I would want to associate myself with, or support even indirectly. Just go to their front page and read about the kind of annoying, wrongheaded activism they seem to support. They are not so much a news organization as a clearing house for far left activist information. These are people that talk about "global justice" when they really mean justice for their particular downtrodden group of the day. On their front page and links off of it, I find evidence of seriously anti-capitalist, anti-Semitic and anti-American sentiment.

While this does sound like a noble project, there are other organizations (as was pointed out by another poster) with similar projects that you might support if you find Indymedia's politics so far left that they're about to fall off the table.

It is certainly also true that there are people located domestically in the US we should consider helping get access to computers and technology training, though I don't think that should preclude helping those in South America by any means, unlike some of the other posters in this thread.

Just a thought.

They make Linux boxes out of donated parts and volunteered time. They also recycle monitors, motherboard parts and steel.
Please be gentle

In addition to taking donated equipment and recycling hazardous components like monitors and laptop batteries, they also provide free training, and a program to provide free PCs running Mandrake to people in the community.

Mike Graham
http://www.mikegraham.net

Here in Portland, Oregon, we are doing much the same thing. FREE GEEK takes in the donated hardware from individuals and small businesses and refurbishes them with GNU/Linux through the great efforts of our volunteers. I'm am really pleased that the ACCRC is self-supporting. We operate a 5,000 S.F. facility with a 5,000 S.F. annex with three staff. It costs us over $7,500 month to keep this facility running. At our current volume and capacity, we only generate about $5,000 per month. We dream of increasing our capacity to the point where the money we make from recycling exceeds our costs.

One problem I would like to hear how they solve is the monitor issue. It costs us an astronomical sum to process a monitor properly (about $18 per) and we receive about 20 a day. The closest facility that can handle them correctly is nearly 200 miles away in Seattle. Monitors need to be handled like hazardous waste if your going to deal with them domestically. If they get brokered overseas, there is no telling what happens to them. We sure as hell don't want them in a ditch by a river in China.

Too bad for us slashdot folks who aren't in CA

Well, there are other such efforts in the world. In Portland, OR, there is a group called FreeGeek that does the same thing.

There was an earlier Slashdot story that mentioned some other places to donate PC's: this one

adéu,
Mateu

Yup. Check out Free Geek -- they're a non-profit organization in portland oregon that has a similar program. It's all volunteer-based, and volunteers get free salvaged/reassembled linux machines and training. All in all a very nice system.

Portland Oregon has a great non-profit that does this sort of thing as well: Free Geek

OK. I work at FREE GEEK and we reuse and recycle a lot of these gizmos.

Monitors are the worst

Here's what currently has to happen to a monitor to dispose of it safely and responsibly (without shipping it to Asia). Note: We're on the west coast, USA:

• Drop monitor off at FREE GEEK
• We gather and test the monitors. It's far more efficient to re-use when possible. But some are broken or so obsolete that no one will touch them.
• Those that can't be re-used get palletized and shipped to somewhere in Washington State where they are disassembled. This costs us $8.00 / CRT, plus shipping.
• From Washington State, the leaded glass gets shipped off to a smelter in Pennsylvania. That's the closest place to domestically handle this kind of glass. This requires a trainload of glass to make it worth the while.

Now, we could try to cut costs by doing some of the work ourselves. (We already do the testing.) But:

• Wanna disassemble a monitor? Their innards are coated with a fire retardant that you can absorb into your blood stream through the skin. Their capacitors can electrocute you. This is not a minimum wage type job here.
• Wanna have a lead smeltering operation in your neighborhood? (I didn't think so.)

Same story goes for TVs, BTW.

There's a lot of stuff in the computer that's worth pulling out (gold, paladium, tantalum). There's some stuff that's break even (most of the other metals). But a lot of it is just expensive to deal with.

These proposed deposits are not hidden costs. The real hidden cost (from the consumer's point of view) is the tax that he'll have to pay a decade down the line to clean up the water supply, etc.

...

This sounds perfect to me... I can drop my monitor off at FreeGeek for $10, an old PC for free, or a really old PC for $5. Otherwise I'll sell it, or turn it into art.

why not goto FreeGeek if you're in portland, ore. area

K12linux.org is a great site for info and their Red Hat Distro. I have meet Eric and Paul a few times, really great people. They have developed quite a following because they are making implimenting a thin client setup really easy.

K12ltsp is based on www.ltsp.org which is in version 3.0 right now. I use this software to set up computer labs in non-profits in and around Portland. We are a NP ourselves) It is gaining maturity, system administration is barely more work than working on a box running programs locally. You need to have DHCP running on the server, TFTP setup, and allow it to serve applications to remote X-Clients, and that is about it.

Here are some links for further reading on what others have done.
umn
olinux
solucorp
askslashdot
gbdirect
tucows
XDM

it's a really good idea, and it works. that a good enough solution for you?

bnf

bnf

everybody needs a FreeGeek

The installer is incidental. Debian users run it once, and never again.

Well, my job is to teach newbies how to build computers out of old parts and install linux on them. From my point of view, the installer could get used *a lot*.

At home, however, I agree with you. You get it installed and then forget about the installer. But my point is, the installer will be quite important in some situations.

I was over at FREE GEEK for their open house a couple weeks ago, and they were selling wind chimes made of old hard drive platters and other computer innards. Looked kinda cool for a low budget gift. Maybe they'll mail order. (And it's for a good cause.)

Great! I hope this program becomes nationwide. Then maybe dishonest broken-part resellers like "Good as New Computers" in CT will have to shut down.

The freegeek.org home page also says "a few hours" but actually the price in labor is a few days:
"Membership Program
8 hours Receiving
8 hours Recycling
8 hours Testing
After completing the min. 8 hours of time in each of these three areas (24 hours total), members qualify for a FREEK BOX computer system. An optional orientation class is available (recomended for first time computer owners or first time Linux users)." --
www.freegeek.org/volunteer.html

Others might want to look into this organization to use it as a model for a similar non-profit in your own area.

The key is establishing open protocols for the distribution of the used hardware. Many businesses want to let go of their old hardware but want it received by legitimate accountable districts with documentation for records. Sometimes suppliers will do the transporting at their own expense. Schools and churches can fill out requests for used hardware. There's places like FreeGeek in Portland, Ore. and Foxhill in Staten Island, NYC that are ready to go for this. Both teach classes on how to take apart, repair, and rebuild old computers. At Foxhill after certification they can sell them or put them to work in the community. Foxhill has a local area network with DSL access that members of the community use and it consists almost entirely of used 486s and Pentiums with dusty keyboards, smeared monitors, and mice with no mousepads running Debian.

I think donating used hardware is a tax write-off for businesses so they'd rather send them to the legitimate organizations then send them to the dump and get fined by landfill/DEQ/EPA for toxic disposals. I've heard the warehouses are overflowing ...

Used hardware doesn't impress those that have lots of new stuff but to a district of people where many have never even used a computer or only surfed once or twice they're amazing! They eventually realize it is educational and profitable for them to fully access and build what they use. There are definitely underserved communities all over the U.S.--real victims of the often described digital divide.

My sources for information come primarily from experience as a developer.

Disclaimer: I'm affiliated with Foxhill but not with FreeGeek.

Here in Portland, there are a couple of organizations which address this issue:

freegeek.org takes in old computers and recycles them into usable Linux machines, providing education for folks who want to learn to be a a PC technician and in return for volunteer hours, the volunteer gets a useful PC in return with Mandrake and other stuff on it.

They will also responsibly recycle components they do not use for a nominal charge.

The StRUT program similarly provides education and recycling services for Portland, and, I understand, for other communities as well.

So the resources are out there - perhaps in your community. And the volunteer opportunities are there as well, if that's your interest.

Dave

a couple notes:

1. yes, they use linux; i have been told they would consider MS, but (as has been pointed out) it would just cost too much (i.e. > $0) to be feasible. they understand that "users" would often be more happy with familiar MS stuff, but simply cant do it for legal/licensing reasons and just plain cash.
2. a second reason linux (arguably?) is a better choice for them is that they are often working with old (early pentium) machines with low ram. in theory(!) these are more likely to be usable with linux than MS. (this is often questionable in practice, i guess; but point #1 makes it a moot argument.)

anyway, its nice that these machines (and they get a lot of them!) arent going into landfills, what with the toxicity of all the junk in computers and current (growing) rate of turnover due to obsolescence/envy.

If said technology is still usable, they will give it, along with training, to a needy individual, in the hopes that this person will be able to use this training to start a career, and get a better life for him/herself.

If the technology you donate has outlived its usefulness, FreeGeek will pick it apart and recycle the basic components or elements. All of this is free of charge, but if you are giving them recyclables, they will ask for a small cash donation (not required).

But of course, Oregon is a pretty green state. Gore barely defeated Ralph Nader for the presidency here, 46% to 6%.

I'm assuming there are other programs like this around the country, but I don't know. What's your city doing?