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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?
"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.
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.
Well do you want to do it? How long do you think it would take to set it up and configure? What happens once you give it to someone, then something craps out? Do you really want to be stuck supporting all these various old computers, each one different than the others?
Personally, I would not want to spend my day trying to get Linux running on a bunch of 486/Pentium class systems. Supporting the old hardware, obscure drivers for sound, video, and CD. All the flakey hardware too, enough to make me pull my hair out.
Also, I find that many of the faster computers that get thrown out not because they are too slow it's because they are simply cheap peices of shit. Hell, recently I recycled a 333Mhz machine (eMachine), a 200Mhz machine (Packard Bell), 380Mhz (no-name pile of crap). These computers were plenty fast, but they simply crashed if you looked at them the wrong way. I kept and still use two HPs, a 75Mhz and a 100Mhz which are both rock solid.
Probably what you would end up doing is taking the best computers in the lot, and trashing the rest because it's too old/too flakey/not supported/not worth the time/simply busted/etc. And you are back to your old problem, what to do with the 9/10 or whatever computers that you don't want?
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.
I'll even be happy to restore the hard drive and post it on the internet!
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
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
Thank you for that link to crra. That is quite informative - exactly what I have been fearing.
Our fascination with the very latest in technology is producing piles of junk. This is the reason I have been so frustrated at the Big Corporations which drive the market when they cease supporting the older stuff in order to force us to buy the later stuff, which is often incompatible with the earlier hardware, thus forcing junkage.
Example: Win 95 runs on 486 and earlier Pentiums just fine. It was designed for them. But try to license a copy of Win95. You either violate copyright or pollute the landfills with yet another operable, but obsolete machine, often rendered obsolete by something as simple as lack of a method of licensing the software.
Or what am I going to do with my old Panasonic "Laser Partner" printer? Its about 50 pounds of high quality steel frame that still works just great - problem is the toner is getting really hard to find. This machine has run for about 10 years now - and its gonna see end of life for lack of a consumable? I can probably still keep that old KSR-33 (TeleType) going... although it doesn't do graphics worth a shit and is only good for uppercase. Yes, the new stuff is a heckuva lot better, but why does it have to be so expendable?
This is why I get so furious when I see things like that Lexmark lawsuit against the company making aftermarket replacement toner cartridges. Enabling a manufacturer to mandate single-source consumables means you have empowered that manufacturer to render the whole fleet of machines in the field obsolete by merely denying access to their consumables. This crap was signed into law by the U.S. Congresscritters - people who *should* know better.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
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.
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.