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Dell Offers Curbside Computer Recycling
schm00 writes "A Dell
press release today announced an expansion of thier recycling program. For $15 they will arrange to pick up used computer equipment from your home and transport it to an EPA approved recycler. You can order pickup starting on March 25th. It's nice to see an alternative to the darker side of computer recycling."
Neat. But what happens with the recycled stuff? Do they just dump it or do they sell it?
Recycling and hydrogen fuel enhancements to follow the Iraq news.
Seriously, this is a nice item. I see so many computers go into the dumpster at work, especially when changing offices.
--------
Free your mind.
shoot, just tell me where you live, and i would be happy to be the computer scavenger...... and i will even do it for free..
xao
xao
http://TheHillforum.hopto.org
These old computers will became missile controllers and *I have to pay* them for that.
They will be glad to pick it up from your home for free with thankful eyes and faces.
Not trolling, but I don't really think this type of business service worth any mention in slashdot. FYI, I donate all now-useless-for-me computer parts to charity (I live in Hong Kong, though. so YMMV in the states or other nation.)
"I have this old broken Monitor that I am going to replace - how can I get rid of it"
"Well you can either dump it illegally or pay someone to get it recycled"
"Well, I don't want to break any laws or hurt the environment. Who do I contact? How much does it cost?"
"Ummm"
This is a good solution to a dilema that many face - how to recycle thier old computer stuff ethically. This makes it easy and relativly painless - it still seems rediculous to pay to recycle the stuff, but $15 is pretty good compared to going rates.
What happens to the old computers when you give them to Dell? Do they just give them away for charity, or they really dissasemble them to reuse different materials?
If it turns out they ship them abroad for dumping, it's not much of a difference...
The ENIAC Demo Competition
It was nice to read this article after so much of the Iraq news. I'm not looking forward to being bombarded with propaganda for the next few months...
Amen to dell.
You're nothing; like me.
Look.. This is a wonderful first step and frankly I am glad that it is an option for those folks who want to spend the time and the money. But america has turned into a nation of people with no attention span and it takes quite a lot of time to find a box.. find peanuts..arange for the delivery and...mmmmm.. new program on Tivo... ... ..
.
-=SiGH=-
Fifteen dollars isn't much, and letting Dell haul it away is easier than trying to cram a monitor down your garbage disposal.
However, whether most people will actually be willing to recycle old computers for $15 when they could dispose of them nearly as easily for free, remains to be seen.
Old computers either still have enough juice to be usable, or are so old that they are gaining value for collectors (check prices of some Sinclair models). So charity or eBay seem to be better solutions than paying somebody to take stuff away.
Maybe Dell is building a cluster of those. $15 per node not bad.
All of my used computers are riddled with bullet holes. Will you still take them back?
Sincerely,
Chuck
Get your stinking paws off me you damn dirty ape
Since most computers people are throwing out now are at least 486 level machines, why don't we get them back in working order, put a minimum Linux install on it with a browser and mail client and give them to people who can't afford computers. Most monitors are also usually repairable with a few dollars in parts, with the schematics it's usually something that can be quickly fixed.
Is there an existing non-profit organization that could start a thing like this nationwide?
Also, you could write you time off on your taxes at the end of the year if that mattered to you.
Does this sound workable to anyone?
It's late and I'm rather tired... So I might have missed something here.
Is this program ONLY for Dell hardware? Or can you take advantage of it even with non Dell hardware?
Sorry if this is right in front of my nose somewhere...
How about an alternative to the lighter side of computer recycling!
I'm not quite sure what that slashdot story was about... but I've always been a fan of computer recycling ala mr. baseball bat (see Office Space) or thrown out of high speed moving vehicle.
"You had this look that of an angel, it was such a bad disguise" --Dishwalla
Three Questions 1. What are they getting by doing this? It can be expensive to remove equipment. (Anyone want an IBM 3174? It's going for 99 cents on Ebay.) A couple of commercials might be a better use of the money. 2. What are they doing with the hard drives and are they informing the donators of hardware of this potential worry? Data could be restored, even when fdisked. 3. Who are they going to outsource to pick this equipment up?
Hoist Number One and Number Six.
Somebody tell the Dell Dude to yank his stash out of his mini-tower before it gets picked up...
evil adrian
Will they pick up non-Dell hardware?
If so, that would be really cool.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
Now I can properly dispose my old Dell to make room for a new UltraSparcIII :-)
This reminds me of the time my brother and I got into an argument (kinda stupid actually) about the volume verses mass of a computer monitor.
This is a true story!
My grandma had this really old Packard Bell VGA monitor that was basically worthless (soon to be replaced) and my brother threw it in the trash can. I said to my brother, do you think a monitor would float or sink if thrown in a body of water!
We discussed the weight of the monitor and the vacuum tube properties. My belief (at first) was that the monitor would sink as it was very heavy. Well my brother brought up the fact that the CRT tube was a vacuum mass and that it would float!
Well, last year we decided to go fishing at the local reservoir, while we were packing up the fishing equipment I was surprised to see the monitor sitting in the garage (my 80 year old grandmother had gone through the garbage can AGAIN!). We decide to put the monitor to the test so we packed it along with us to the lake. We floated out in our canoe (placed our bets) and tossed it into the lake! To my surprise the damn thing floated! I was pissed but only because I lost the bet.
BTW, the monitor was recovered and properly disposed of.
I work for the Lab ran by Departament of Energy. We have lots of old but still usable computers (on PII 500 level). The only problem is that they cannot be taken offsite for security reasons, and nobody wants them on-site. The security is so tight that when harddrive in one of new Dell boxes had to be replaced, the old broken one couldn't be taken by the serviceman (which is the usual policy).
The problem is thas institutions like this have the biggest stores of old crap and nothing can be done with this.
At my school, I help out with all the computer stuff.
We get so much crap dumped on us as "donations." I get to deal with a lot of it.
If I'm lucky, it will power on and boot up. (If I'm unlucky, it will be missing the CPU or the motherboard will be cracked in half.) Then, usually, the OS is fucked up enough that it needs a reinstall, so I get to search for drivers for random Dell crap from 1996.
Usually I just scavenge mice, keyboards, any 168-pin memory, and CD-ROM drives if they are IDE.
My favorite donation is when some asshole gave in a monitor.
Upon being powered up, a huge 1" arc was visible inside the back. I am told that 1" through air means about 20,000 volts. If you looked at the screen, random points of energy seemed to be sparkling from deep inside. I figured it probably was about to give me face cancer, and something inside popped and started smoking, so I turned it off.
Tim
Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
Dell will hand this off to some contractor...the contractor will get part of the $15.00, and Dell will squander the rest.
The illegal aliens that actually do the curbside retrieval will simply drive around the corner and chuck your old box into the dumpster behind the pet store.
What is being touted as gleam in Dell's shiny good-neighbor smile is just another scam to polish a public image, gather personal info that can be sold to some marketing wonk, and make you pay for the honor.
The odds of any equipment actually being properly recycled are as low as ever...that means next to nil.
The only way to know that your old equipment is being disposed of properly is to do it yourself.
There's got to be alternatives:
-Give them to people who can't afford a computer.
-Leave them running distributed computing programs in the basement (SETI@Home, etc)
-Give them to me, and I'll take out the hard drive and add it to my array. Monitors would also be great, always need more of those. I'll even pay for the shipping if you want to get rid of it bad enough to pay $15!
In San Diego we have a company that will haul ANY electronics that has PCB's and CRTs for $0.39 a lb. Dell is gonna make a lot of money on this one. To think they are being nice to the enviroment too :P
When I was a college freshman the CS department was trying to get rid of their punchcarding Harris H800A mainframe; it was using about 65% of the capacity of the hallway of the geosciences building and the talk was, anyone who could haul off the beast could have it.
I checked the Dell Terms and Conditions and couldn't find where it said the offer was limited to "personal" computers; maybe I missed it.
this is probably just Dell's effort to get into the highly profitable data mining business. There's no telling how much money they can make by selling the secrets of aol user's IM habits.
Seriously, some of these "useless" 500mhz machines they acquire could probably be used very well at a linux lab in a lower income school district.
slashdot, news for crazed liberal socialist zealots
Recently, my work threw out a nice Compaq Presario 1610 laptop (P150, 1.6gig, cd-rom, built in speakers), simply because the screen wouldn't come on. I pulled it apart, replaced the backlight with one from Fry's Electronics, and will soon be getting a 64 MB SODIMM from Kingston. I later plan on upgrading the hard drive to something more reasonable (probably a 4.3 gig drive), and dropping Debian or something on it.
A couple of years ago I grabbed a PowerTower 166 they didn't want anymore - one of these days I will put YDL on it and play.
My work throws out a lot of stuff, I try to rescue as much of it as I can, and give it to those who can use it. I have a bunch of motherboards that could make great firewall bases, or robotics dev platforms for the right motivated people...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
I love the fact that you can only find this page in the google cache...
Could they be selling parts of these recycled computers back to their own customers? Hmm? Or maybe they use the used equipment to bludgeon their annoying interns to death.
The Dutch taxing system holds that all computer components have to be sold with "recycling tax" included. And I was so looking forward to a Dell truck dropping by at my doorstep, too.
Jynx
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it well worth the effort.
Why should I pay to have them take it away when I can toss it for free (not counting the monthly garbage fee that I pay anyway).
I'm glad I can get rid of my outdated P4 2.8 GHz now that I've upgraded to a P4 3.06 in an environmentally friendly manner.
Thanks Dell!
I'll do it for 10 bucks.
I love old hardware!
The current Slashdot moderation system is made by gay communists!
Shut The FSCK Up. I did **NOT** come here to /. to have the war shoved in my face, and you are **WAY** out of line posting like that on THIS thread.
For the last week, I've had to endure 7+ hours of MSNBC war propaganda while at work (the boss has kept the TV on). I've spent more time over the last few months at marches and vigils than I've spent sleeping. The members of my neopagan group have even resorted to spellwork.
I'm tired, I'm cranky, and more than a little bit pissed off about this bullshit war that's been started. But I came here to try and get AWAY from the massive media blitz for a little while. At least I have the balls to put my username on my post.
--
You don't like what I write? Oh well...
Anytime I have old hardware laying around the house that is not worth selling on ebay, I just post an offer to my local LUG mailing list, within 5 mins there are multiple offers to pick it up for free.
Its great to see Dell do this and then pass it onto charity. I just can't help wonder though if they make sure the hard disks are wiped before passing them out. There have been many cases of where private information has ended up in the public domain.
:)
Also on a side note I just looked at the advertising graphic at the top, one of the 5 text ones. Its advertising in order (left to right)
Dell, itdisposal.com, Dell, Dell and Dell
Well looks like they've got their targeting data right
rus
Cheap UK and US VPS
I wonder if you can get em to deliver some pot while they're at it... Pick up a bunch of boxes, then recycle the plastic into new baggies!
"I'll give ya 4 latitudes for a Z man, hook me up"
So long as they're within the last 5 years or so. I figure I could handle about 500 of them?
Dell Offers Mailing List Subscription for $15, Oh, and They'll Pick Your Ass-Tasstic PC Up Too and get a Tax Write-Off.
fslg503-985-8686503-985-8686503-985-8686503-985-8
When reading the headline, "darker side of computer recycling", I somehow thought the "darker side" was going to be Microsoft in some form or another .....
I really should stop reading slashdot so often.
If Bob had meant us to recycle computers, he wouldn't have given us eBay.
They use them as backfill for holes left by dirt and gravel mining, you know, landfills?
... you got a Dell???
Are these machines being reused, or are they simply being smelted and landfilled?
Just think: manufacture of 3.5" floppy drives could stop forever if Dell really does the right thing and grabs all those 3.5" drives. Yay!
My friend in China has just mentioned that their company is gonna upgrade the PC park, which includes some Dell servers. Can Dell pick their computers from China? That would be a real news: "Dell is picking up PC junk from China to recycle upon EPA approval instead of sending PC junk to China".
Less is more !
It is a good move by Dell for them to agree to recycle their PCs for $15. A better move, in the long run, would be for them to push for more easily upgradable Hardware Architectures. This would make the PC something that is not obsolete in 1-2 years, but give it a longer lifetime (maybe 8-10 years). That would do a lot to lower the PC trash load.
Imagine a Beowul@%$#&!NO CARRIER
Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
Monitors can be Xineramed. CPUs can be clustered.
Or you can just buy a HUB, use your P4 3Ghz as processing server and spread 386s at all your rooms as cheap X terminals... It would be nice to read slashdot in the bathroom instead of plain old dead-tree newspaper...
Also, I know some people who work with donated computers (oh, my ethic... some of them are better than mine), and for those which are unusable as desktop we are planning to prepare and sell them as DSL routers for students which want to share a DSL line (a 486 with 8mb of RAM does it nice)
BTW, I am running a MMX-200 with 32MB of RAM, and dont plan to upgrade soon... Exchange rates here are BAD... I could buy a car for the price of a new puter...
From the beginning of its existence, Dell has been one of the most efficient supply chains in the US corporate world. It did not thrive on technological innovation, but on marketing and business innovation. How is that relevant here?
I think their recycling program is going to be just another efficient supply chain... for junkyards in Asia. Do you think they will spend money to set up recycling plants where all the metals from the PC are extracted and put to good use? Or they would rather ship the junk to the first Asian sweatshop that offers them any money for the waste? I think the second option is more likely. They will just join the natural road of the computer from your trashcan to the hands of that girl with the screwdriver from the article, and they will make $15/PC out of it.
If you have generally Non-PeeCee equipemnt roughly more than 10 years old to dispose of, post a notice to the cctalk@classiccmp.org mailing list, or contact one of the many people on that list who are very likely to be looking for what you have.
If nothing else, Ebay it, and make a few bucks.
Chances are, somebody out there wants that old machine of yours. Recycling has its place, but so does history. Epecially consider these options if you have old servers, minicomputers, or mainframes to get rid of.
There are plenty of non-profits that will take Pentium class or better machines, of course.
--rgb
What guarantees do we have that Dell isn't loading up containers and shipping the problem to China? Let's see, I can ship the container for $750. It holds 2,000 monitors/computer boxes. So, the profit margin is $29,250 per container... This concept has been going on, the prices have dropped... The Recycling centers in Central Florida, take systems and products, and offer FREE computer parts, Aerosol spray cans of what ever has been inspected and is safe/useful... You can go to the center, drop off/pick up what you want! There are lots of 'like new' products! Orange County Florida recycled over 80 tons of spray cans last year, and I think the figure for computers is over 20 tons! About a third of my 24 computers (of the past 2 years) are curbside units. I have paid as much as $10 each for 5 used Compaq Desktops, that I loaded with Linux and donated to the local food banks, churches, and charities. So, it would be really cool if the people paid ME to take, and recycle, this stuff! http://leap-cf.org is our LUG, and we refer to a group who does the recycling to schools, charities, on a large scale. Everybody, do your share! 486's make good IPCOP Firewall/routers (up to a dozen hub-client nodes), and run headless! http://ipcop.org
I was reading "The Economist" yesterday and they had an article about a new way of recycling these that is being developed, and will be mandated, to recycle and perhaps reuse the parts inside of the monitors and computers. I don't remember exactly how they do it, but they take some kind of chemical and put it onto the motherboards, ram, etc, and it extracts the silver in the solder used to mold it together, as well as extracts many other useful kinds of metals and metalloids. It's really pretty neat. I'd definitely recommend reading the article if this interests anyone. It goes into good detail about how it's done, but at 17, my memory is slowly leaking away to the point I can't remember the exact way it's done.
For people who live near Sault Ste Marie, (Michigan or Ontario) there is a twice a year event, held by Clean North Its called the Bring Out Your Dead, and information on the last event can be found here
It looks like another event is slated to be held early May.
Look at the Dell page - it's a Recycle/DONATE page, routing donated PCs through the National Cristinia Foundation. I'm not sure whether they use Linux on donated machines (or if they'd leave it on if it was there already), but it would be worth discussing with them.
look it up. unicor.gov
federal bureau of prisons
Now my computer can get to its destination in Chinese streams and rivers, and I don't even have to get out of my Lazyboy!
if Dell will send those sharp-as-a-knife interns to pick them up.
Wonder why both these initiative are coming from Texas? Hmmm ....
Here's how they do it. Kind of ruins the attractiveness of the idea of cheap recycling.
I prefer the method of just smashing the old computer stuff into tiny tiny bits.
:P
And snagging the flyback transformers off the monitors
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.
1. Leave monitor/PC by curb for trash pickup.
2. Trash pickup won't take them (they're supposed to be dropped off at DPW)
3. PC/monitor gets kicked around by local kids for several weeks.
4. Broken glass causes flat tire or injury. Lead & cadmium from monitor leaches into soil.
5. Street sweeping eventually picks up the broken little bits.
I see this about once a month in my neighborhood. I admire Dell for trying to provide a solution, but I don't think it's easy enough for the teeming masses.
"I'd say 'Have a good time,' but arson is still illegal.
So you get paid $15 for Dell to come out to your place and pick up your old computer crap? DAmn I'm gonna make a killing.... I've got so much old computer hardware..... mmmmm.
- Western Disposal recently canceled their computer recycling pick up day because of environmental justice issues including the low to slave labor rates some third world nations pay people to dismantle 1st world discarded computers
- I wish there was some type of charity that built Beowolf clusters out of older computers.
- Interesting to note that, in part, the computers are coming down in price due to their use of leaded plastic and less precious metals in their components (micro coating technology) both are disincentives to recycling
- China burns them in a huge fire and then harvests the metals they can recover after the burning
Basically, countries with waste computers take advantage of other countries economic situations to dump electronic waste. I hope this is not what Dell is doing.It's too bad that old computers don't smell.
Articles:
- Just because you can't, doesn't mean you shouldn't
Seriously, Old computers don't have to run old software. Many oganizations aren't aware that they could pay a grand or two for a server and then run old machines as thin clients. Many people seem to have the idea that you must buy an individual powerhouse for each node, and this is a huge deterrent. When you throw in the costs of licensing proprietary software, hardly anyone can afford this type of solution. I just finished a project like that in a rural county in west texas. These kids were still learning logo on Comm64's. Now I have a few new Linux geeks that look up to me as some sort of Linux Guru God. That alone is worth the effort :)
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It's just that yours is stupid.
I can only comment on the local area, but this is information I have first-hand knowledge of:
Goodwill Industries wants your old but working computer crap. Check with your local Goodwill organization (the main site can help you with this) to see if they are one of the sites that handles electronic goods and appliances. In Delaware it's the Lea Street facility that takes them.
The State of Delaware will recycle broken electronics for free (sort of mostly free to you, that is - the state's taxes pay for it, but those taxes have not been specifically increased to support this program). You might get harrassed by the DNREC Gestapo if you don't have DE plates on your car, though - this service is for citizens of Delaware.
I think we'll see this type of thing get more common in the future. I usually take as much stuff out of the recycling bin as I put in, personally. I do this quite openly in full view of the guard shack.
..That doesn't sound too bad.
Maybe I'm turning soft in my old age, but I recently lost a monitor, and for some damned reason, I just don't see throwing it in a dumpster as a viable plan.
Sure. I could throw it away, and no one would really care. However, monitors have nastiness of the third kind inside of 'em.
Still, I think I'll research Dell's little bit of business here. Throwing old computer parts in a dump means we're fscking over our own land, rather than having toxic components shipped over to some Asian country.
If Dell's actually safely handling old hardware, though, it'll be $15 well spent.
There's a 50lb weight limit, 100 for monitors.
Why not just slap a $10 tax on the sale of all new computers an earmark it for end-of-life recycling? The thing will have to be recycled eventually, why not pay for it up front?
You could probably even do it for cheaper if every computer sold was taxed. That way the federal/state/local/whatever government can offer recycling for computers.
People won't be tempted to illegaly dump since recycling costs are already paid. Throw your computer parts in your curb side recylcing bin... done!
HP has a couple of places where they recycle computers. They'll take any brand, and for a fee will pick them up (can't get the URL right now - for some reason the site isn't working right - must have laid off the folks that did that stuff).
But what they do is to take the components and drop them into a big machine that grinds them up. Then the pieces are separated (plastics, metals, etc.) and sent to other facilities for re-use. Pretty cool, really.
how about
15$ - Dell picks up your computer
20$ - Dell also brings you a pizza
now THATs how we get people recycling
Dude, they're getting your Dell!
Karma: Positive (Mostly affected by lack of a negative sign)
I say good for them. Companies need to take some responsibility for the waste they are indirectly generating.
Let bigblue and hcraq follow suit.
"Failure of Windows operating systems is extremely rare. If it happens, it is usually due to operating system file c
not even that good
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
I just rescued a pristine IBM XT yesterday, totally original, even the factory screws are there. I used to deliver and set these things up for doctors, lawyers, refineries in 1982-1989 as a tech. This one has a 10m PLUS hardcard, 640k ram. 2 FDD, CGA card and monitor. It was going to the dump. They were $7,500+ new and they were to die for. :-)
This one is going to run as either a terminal to my Linux box or it will run 8088 Linux. Just for kicks I may boot it up and play the pure text versions of Zork, THHGTTG, and even Star Trek.. Just for flashback purposes only..
I rescue old PC's from the trash all the time. I have mountains of them. I'll take an old Pentium90 and drop Smoothwall into it, spray paint it black and put some super bright LEDs on for special effect and sell it from $800.
At $800 my customers are thrilled to get a router that is quite a bit lower than a Cisco and much better.
And the $800 fits just perfectly in my pocket considering that I get the damn things off the side of the road!!
God I love to recycle!!
"Dude! You're gettin a Dell!"
The day Microsoft creates a product that doesn't suck, it will be known as the Microsoft Vaccuum Cleaner!