Here in Portland, Oregon, we are doing much the same thing. FREE GEEK takes in the donated hardware from individuals and small businesses and refurbishes them with GNU/Linux through the great efforts of our volunteers. I'm am really pleased that the ACCRC is self-supporting. We operate a 5,000 S.F. facility with a 5,000 S.F. annex with three staff. It costs us over $7,500 month to keep this facility running. At our current volume and capacity, we only generate about $5,000 per month. We dream of increasing our capacity to the point where the money we make from recycling exceeds our costs.
One problem I would like to hear how they solve is the monitor issue. It costs us an astronomical sum to process a monitor properly (about $18 per) and we receive about 20 a day. The closest facility that can handle them correctly is nearly 200 miles away in Seattle. Monitors need to be handled like hazardous waste if your going to deal with them domestically. If they get brokered overseas, there is no telling what happens to them. We sure as hell don't want them in a ditch by a river in China.
Portland, Oregon - FREE GEEK is a non-profit that takes older equipment and makes simple end user Linux boxes (FREEK BOXes) that are given to needy individuals for a few hours of community service recycling computers. The computers come with a class on how to use it and everything. (we've given out a couple a hundred in the last year). http://www.freegeek.org
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Here in Portland, Oregon, we are doing much the same thing. FREE GEEK takes in the donated hardware from individuals and small businesses and refurbishes them with GNU/Linux through the great efforts of our volunteers. I'm am really pleased that the ACCRC is self-supporting. We operate a 5,000 S.F. facility with a 5,000 S.F. annex with three staff. It costs us over $7,500 month to keep this facility running. At our current volume and capacity, we only generate about $5,000 per month. We dream of increasing our capacity to the point where the money we make from recycling exceeds our costs.
One problem I would like to hear how they solve is the monitor issue. It costs us an astronomical sum to process a monitor properly (about $18 per) and we receive about 20 a day. The closest facility that can handle them correctly is nearly 200 miles away in Seattle. Monitors need to be handled like hazardous waste if your going to deal with them domestically. If they get brokered overseas, there is no telling what happens to them. We sure as hell don't want them in a ditch by a river in China.
Portland, Oregon - FREE GEEK is a non-profit that takes older equipment and makes simple end user Linux boxes (FREEK BOXes) that are given to needy individuals for a few hours of community service recycling computers. The computers come with a class on how to use it and everything. (we've given out a couple a hundred in the last year). http://www.freegeek.org