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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?"
This article http://www.txstate.edu/effective/UPPS/upps-05-01-02.html found in the first page when Googling "State of Texas Computer Disposal Procedure" will show that the AC truly does have a limited understanding of how things work.
FP?
No comprende? Let me type that a little slower for you...
You are in a maze of twisted little posts, all alike.
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.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
You might want to verify that they put them in the dumpster. I work in state government and all agencies here send old equipment to state surplus, which lesser funded agencies can get things out of and the leftovers are sold to the public at auctions. If your state government is just tossing all its surplus then you should contact someone in your state legislature about changing such a wasteful practice.
It's perfectly normal to lease a machine for three years, while it is covered by warranty/service contract, and give it back after the lease expires.
The failure rate of old equipment goes higher and higher, and without proper maintenance contracts you'll start of getting into unstable territory.
It's perfectly OK to do it this way. It does not make sense spending an inordinate amount of resources of keeping a huge park of a variety of machines running.
Instead, standardizing on a few machines and tossing them out when another technology renewal is due is *good*. It makes management easier and allows IT to keep things running smoothly.
Dark clothing + ski masks + pick-up truck @ 3am ...
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
after the equipment is taken off the books, it's sold to the brother-in-law of some administrator for $0.50/ton. He then cleans up the PCs and sells them to government schools (via a contract he has with the superintendent, who happens to be his nephew) for 150% of what their new value was.
"Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado!"
Have you looked at GovDeals at all? I work for a state agency in Missouri, and all of our equipment ends up being sold to the public through that site. I also notice that Illinois has a good deal of equipment there also.
Go to http://www.state.il.us/CMS/1_buying/statesurp.htm, which is the firs tlink on Google when searching for "Illinois state surplus auction" for more info.
Go to our state online auction site to see if they end up there, too.
There's a reason Central Management Services exists -- it's to provide the central management of the services all state agencies need to kkeep duplication of effort to a minimum. One thing all state agencies need is to dispose of surplus equipment.
In fact, here is the state law that governs this process: http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=555&ChapAct=30%C2%A0ILCS%C2%A0605/&ChapterID=7&ChapterName=FINANCE&ActName=State+Property+Control+Act.
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...which is a large Big 12 school, the biology, chemistry, and physics departments generally find it easier to just put the computers out in the hallways and wait for them to disappear. I've gotten all kinds of weird old hardware from them. There are also disgruntled IT staffers that have been here a while that will happily provide hardware to friendly fellow geeks instead of sending them to the dumpster. Those folks have gotten me AUI transceivers, a few SGI workstations, and a huge box of SGI software, including several releases of IRIX 6.5. Some of the other departments will pull a computer out of retirement to serve a specifc purpose. Since I work at a spinoff of the university, I asked nicely and got a P4/Celeron box to use as a server for a joint project, and a fully equipped, mint condition, never used Sun Blade 2000 for my desk...er...for another server. :)
I'm patiently waiting for the university to retire/throw out its 8-node Origin 2000.
sell them to the Air Force for use in their botnet?
Normally a lot of the problem is about accounting.
If they are returned vs. given away vs. stolen. all accounts differently in the books for tax purposes. If your university is state owned it is probably an issue that it is easier to trash the computers then give them away because then you will get groups saying they need them more then other groups. No it is not fair or easy but thats the governemnt.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
As a former employee of an Illinois University, I can confirm they are auctioned off. The Universities are required to wipe the hard drives and then send the machines to Springfield. When they arrive on nicely wrapped pallets, the state randomly selects a few machines from each school and tries to recover data from the drives (simple scans, nothing to extreme, from my understanding). If anything is recovered the entire pallet of returned machines is rejected and the university pays a sizeable fine (we were hit on two of our pallets because a student employee missed a machine that just happened to be selected in the random scans) to have it transported back and they get to rewipe all machines. If they pass the quick check for data, the machines are auctioned off - usually to nonprofits.
I live in Springfield (Yes, an alderman here is Gail Simpson and our state is indeed run by cartoons), where the state's computer systems get "dumped". They are disposed of the same as state-owned automobiles: by auction. Once or twice a year they sell used computers at the fairgrounds by the palletload.
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
A family member of mine works at UNCC and he deals with the a similar policy, all of their "obsolete" equipment gets sent to a warehouse.
The only way to get the stuff out of this lockup is to buy it through a NPO.
We've liberated a few of the PC's by funneling them through our church. Hell, it's even tax deductible!
I work at a college in illinois (chicago to be exact) and we don't throw out old systems. Every few years when they feel necessary or professors complain they will replace our department computers. The computer support people delist them from use and mark them as storage. Then they sell the systems for dirt cheap to students and faculty (who get them for free). I don't know of any policies in place regulating how many systems employees can take but I'm working on acquiring number two right now. I assure you, at least not at this college, they are not tossed in the garbage. Not only is this wasteful and stupid but it is also against the law IIRC. Computer components are very hazardous to the environment. You can't just throw that stuff out. It has to be recycled or disposed of properly, like any hazmat or chemical material.
He's cold, you sensitivein lysdexic!
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
What probably happens is the old equipment is put on a school list and offered to other departments. What they don't want is sent to the state (removed from the school's inventory but still on the state's inventory because they paid for it). The state offers the stuff to state agencies. What state agencies don't want gets auctioned off, so as to get maximum value back from the taxpayer's investment. Depending upon the stuff, it might get bought by a company for its own use, a store for resale, or a recycling company for whatever value is in the parts. Whatever won't sell will get to experience the state's garbage procedure (for computers it's probably a recycling process).
I dunno which school you mean, but at UIUC they have a big warehouse in Orchard Downs area where they keep all the surplus (also includes desks, chairs, book-cases) until it goes to the state. This is just for internal UIUC use and you require a Surplus Redistribution Form signed by your buildings facility manager. That sounds like a handful, but it's actually pretty easy to get. You are on good terms with your facility manager right?
In your specific situation I would go talk to the department office and find out who the manager in charge of surplus disposal for the computer switchover, they might be able to help you as well.
In addition, you can get some really sweet nuke-proof desks and stuff to really geek out your office.
From UIUC:
SURPLUS REDISTRIBUTION
Surplus equipment and furniture are available from the UIUC Surplus Redistribution Facility, located in the Horticulture Field Lab Annex at 1707 S. Orchard Drive.
I used to work in the IT department of a Highschool, and we came up with a great way of dealing with this issue.
In it's infinite wisdom, the school district would put the inventory barcode on the computer case, and inventory it as a computer, rather than inventory the components. So when we were done with a computer, and it was ready to be decomissioned, we would strip out the case. Everything that was usable would come out. Power supplies, NIC's, HD's, Mother Boards, etc. These would then be put into storage, and used to maintain and upgrade the rest of the computers. (Filling up RAM slots, adding extra HD's, etc.) This way, we would always have a supply of spare parts on hand in case we needed to replace a faulty component, and repair components wouldn't come out of our budget. (That way we could buy more and better new machines.) The cases would be sent to surplus.
As a side benefit, if anyone's personal machine broke down, there was a huge supply of good parts to use.
My ex-wife started a program at Heartland Community College in Bloomington Illinois. Started off as a class for 10 - 15 year olds but expanded to include classes for adults. Computers that were being cycled out of inventory were broken down into components by the IT department.
Students pay their $90 enrollment fee and are given a "kit" to use in the instructor-led class. They learn about the individual components and how they work together, assemble the computers and get some simple troubleshooting experience when one component or another doesn't work.
They then learn how to load an operating system, get their machines onto a network, and at the end of the class get to take home a working computer with 4 year old hardware for $75 plus a bit of sweat equity, not a bad deal for a kid whose family can't afford a computer. The class takes place in 5 two-hour sessions over the course of a week.
It's been popular enough that the local university (Illinois State) and a major employer in the area (State Farm Insurance) have taken to donating old machines to Heartland for the program. Saves on the recycling costs and gives young kids a jump start in the basics of computers.
partially regruntled codemonkey bloomington, illinois