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Convincing Companies into Donating Old Computers?
tevk asks: "I work at a large corporation, and today I noticed the sysadmin was throwing a bunch of machines out. When I asked if I could take one, he said it was against company policy. When I asked if we could donate them to a school where my mother works, he said he would love to, but the red tape is almost impossible to work through. Apparently, due to legal concerns, it's easier just to throw the machines out! Does anyone know of any activism sites that might have tips on how to convince the company I work for to donate machines? Failing that, does anyone know any organizations who donate to schools? My mom's school is in rural Maine, so money is tight, and they don't see much in the way of Silicon Valley castoffs."
I live in holland and we have the exact same problem here, I tried to get some machines for the elemtary school of a friend of mine, which failed for the exact same reason you just pointed out.
The only way to do this seems to be this : Let them throw the computers out, officialy(ie put them in a box on the outside of the building) and just pick them up later.
It's not the cleanest way of doing thigs but it worked for me...
BTW I think the "red-tape" has a lot to do with tax issues, I don't know too much about it but that's what I've understood of the whole thing...
hope this helps!
Fighting for peace is like fucking for virginity
If they're disposing of them, load them into your car. It'll save them money on their waste disposal.
The problem I'm facing is that my company has piles of computers they're not using, but are less than 5 years old. They're hanging on to them for the depreciation on their taxes. They won't even sell them for less than the depreciated value (I don't blame them). I imagine plenty of other companies do the same thing. There's some talk about letting companies deduct the expense of PCs all in the first year. If that changes, it should be easier to find donations of 3-5 year old boxes.
Call the EPA - computers contain a lot of heavy metals (monitors have many pounds of lead in the optical glass, motherboards also have heavy metals in solder, gold wires within chips, etc.) and should be propery disposed of. There's far less heavy metals than in the first few generations of PCs, but still enough that they should be not be put into the regular trash stream. There are businesses that will handle this for a modest cost, about $50/system is typical.
Once you point this out - and the fact that superfund sites have established the precedence that the government can, and will, go after pollution sources years after the fact, you can point out that anyone who takes a donated computer both saves them a recycling fee and gives them a charitable write-off. I doubt this alone will have much of an effect (see other posts), but it's worth a shot.
And keeping heavy metals out of the ecosystem is a good idea in any case.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
There are businesses that will buy old corporate computers en masse (Computer Renaissance at the national level, Cummings & Associates in Denver, undoubtably many others), and they'll guarantee that the disks are wiped, etc. No information will be leaked, the computers will be kept out of the trash stream, and the public has access to decent computers at a low cost. That's where I picked up 5 166 MHz Compaqs a few years ago for about $200 each - great for learning things where an "oops" can cause you to lose the contents of your disk, even lose the computer (if I ever get around to hooking one up for "Amateur Scientist" type experiments.)
Unfortunately, every company I deal with has told me that Microsoft is essentially trying to shut down the used computer market. They claim that the used corporate computers which are the backbone of this business (since consumers generally hold onto their computers too long) are almost always covered by site licenses that prohibit resale. Unless the company can provide an original Windows disc and certificate for each and every system, the reseller has to purchase a new copy. Not OEM copy, a retail version. And of course we're talking about a retail version of the latest OS, not the OS suitable for the hardware.
So a $250 used computer is suddenly $500 and a dog because of the bloated OS. A new computer, which can actually run the bloatware, is only a few hundred dollars more... plus you get a subscription to MSN for the next few years! No conflict of interest here, nope, none at all! And of course the people who really need cheap computers don't realize that the real price is much higher but MS has essentially given them a high interest loan with repayment through their MSN fees.
You would think that charities and schools would have exceptions, with Microsoft writing off the cost of the unsold licenses as a charitable deduction, but you would be wrong. Microsoft has been cracking down on school systems - damn it, Bill needs a new BMW more than those inner city kids need a good education!
*We* can take a bare system and install Linux or *BSD on it, but most people can't. And the software Gestapo, since it hasn't actually been hauled in the court to challenge their increasingly outrageous statements, has actually convinced some PHBs that they'll somehow be held responsible if their old systems are reused by someone else without a proper license ("since they should have known of the inevitable infraction") that they'll figure it's better to trash the systems than risk an enforcement action.
So the bottom line is that before you ask your employer to donate old computers, you need to do some research and figure out how you will get licenses for these computers. If you can show that you'll take responsibility for keeping the Gestapo away, for wiping the disks of any OS and company data, etc., then you might be able to make a deal where you pick up the computers instead of a disposal company. (See other comment about why the computers shouldn't just be dumped in the trash.) But without that, don't expect to get very far.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
There's an "Ask Slashdot" titled What Do You Do With Old Computer Parts? that had some links and information in the comments that might be helpful and offer insight into donating to schools and other organizations.
KidA
"Karma can only be portioned out by the cosmos." -Homer Simpson
I can verify the second statement. I was arranging for my then-employer to donate some systems to a charity, and one thing they wanted to be absolutely certain of is that the charity wouldn't be coming back to them and asking for support....
There is a web site www.TechSoup.org which provides all sorts of technology support to non profits, including a recycled and refurbished hardware resource list. Not all of the organizations are non-profits accepting and distributing donated computers (IBM's on there!) but many are. If you're looking to donate this is a useful list.
TechSoup is also attempting to push open source solutions as a low cost alternative for non profits. They currently have links to the StarOffice download on the front page as well as an open source message board. Unfortunately, for many of the same reasons as threads on Slashdot have mentioned, it's not a great solution for most non profits yet.
CompuMentor (who run TechSoup) also offer Microsoft software to non-profits at low rates through their software program. There are some restrictions (3 products, 10 license limit per fiscal year, some broad restrictions on limits). But if you know a small non-profit struggling for MS software forward the link.