Changing a School's Tech Disposal Policy?

An anonymous reader writes "I attend a state university where a new building has recently been put in, and a new budget put in place. They have decided to upgrade all the computer systems involved in the department, with a few slight exceptions. From my limited understanding, State policy is that we cannot just let things go, they have to be sent back to the state capital in order to take them off the books. Then they put them in the dumpster. I feel that this is a huge waste of useful machines (some are merely two years old), but I know not how to change this. Any suggestions, or does anyone know where Illinois dumps used tech?"

Comments

Why tak ethem off the books?

[ePhil_One]

They have decided to upgrade all the computer systems involved in the department If they are only upgrading ONE department, why not find out what other departments withing the university might be able to use them?

Options

[Archangel Michael]

http://www.computersforclassrooms.org/

While the computers need to be taken off the books, that is accomplished by paperwork. There are computer re-furbishers and recyclers like the one listed above (a non-profit 501.c.3) that will take any and all computers as donations to be recycled or deployed to schools.

Usually the biggest pain is the stupid paperwork needed by the state to remove computers from inventory systems. They ought to just expire all computers from inventory after 5 years (or whatever), automatically.