Sending Old PCs Back to Class

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Who knew that recycling old PCs for schools in other countries could be such a complicated process? On the one hand, these people are doing a great job but, as the article points out, sometimes it is actually almost cheaper to buy a new PC.

Although the effort has given more than 9,500 schools their first PCs, some have begun to question whether the approach is the best way to go. Even the nonprofit agency itself has started to supplement the 20,000 or so computers it refurbishes each year with a separate manufacturing line that creates new machines.
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Rather than hire a firm to refurbish these computers, how about send workers to that country with the complete / semi-complete / parts of old computers and teach them how to build, repair, and setup a refurbished system?

Though a little far off, it goes by the old "Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime" adage.
 
I had this issue about 2 years ago with my company. We were almost finished with a branch wide workstation upgrade leaving us with about 100 or so workstations that were little more than 2 years old. I suggested to wipe the hard drives, clean up the systems and find either charities or day care facilities to donate to. I was going to do all the work on my own time including paying for shipping and delivering the machines.

Throughout a few conversations with managers and submitting a full proposal I was met with a firm no. They explained it would be cheaper to junk them than to have a company certify the system is refurbished. This apparently protects the company from any legal battles should a "monitor blow up".

I didn't even bother to ask how much that would cost and painstakingly watched as the systems were carted off by a company to be junked. Although I'm sure they probably recycled them in some way.
 
I had a similar experience. It was easier for us to pull the HDDs and then chunk the rest than to fill out all the paperwork. I work for the government, btw, so just imaigne a few extra pieces of red tape.
 
Ship old computers to third world countries. Not only they would have their free computers but they would learn how to repair them too. It'd be a good educational process for them.

New computers are too cheap anymore for developed countries to refurbish.

Otherwise, just break them down and recycle them.
 
tehblue said:
I had this issue about 2 years ago with my company. We were almost finished with a branch wide workstation upgrade leaving us with about 100 or so workstations that were little more than 2 years old. I suggested to wipe the hard drives, clean up the systems and find either charities or day care facilities to donate to. I was going to do all the work on my own time including paying for shipping and delivering the machines.

Throughout a few conversations with managers and submitting a full proposal I was met with a firm no. They explained it would be cheaper to junk them than to have a company certify the system is refurbished. This apparently protects the company from any legal battles should a "monitor blow up".

I didn't even bother to ask how much that would cost and painstakingly watched as the systems were carted off by a company to be junked. Although I'm sure they probably recycled them in some way.
Click to expand...


To bad you couldn't have just gotten the machines from the company given to you or something like that. Then you could have given them out as being from yourself keeping the company out of it.
 
don't knock uw-milwaukee's giving back to the community program. i worked at their IT department for 3 years...

"hey boss can i take that monitor" no.. its being donated. ok cool! two years go by and i become level 2 tech... i have to take out all the old computers and monitors... to be given to "charity"

to bad the charity was a big farking dumpster... getting picked up to go to the junkyard. they were so full of shit i wonder how much money they made off their charity program
 
tehblue said:
...Throughout a few conversations with managers and submitting a full proposal I was met with a firm no. They explained it would be cheaper to junk them than to have a company certify the system is refurbished.
Click to expand...

It's a shame they only thought of the financial impact it might have on the company as opposed to the benefits it might have for a needy community. Oh well, you gave it a good effort.
 
In high school I did a lot of volunteering for a group called Computers for Africa (http://www.computers4africa.org/) where we took donated machines, fixed them up, and shipped them over. Usually it was labs of 5 to 10 computers, plus 1 computer designated as a server, and a couple boxes for spare parts. While I worked on it we used all open source software, although I've heard now they're using Windows 2000 through some kind of licensing arrangement. The computers were supposed to go to schools and community centers, mostly in Uganda and surrounding areas. Back then it was $50 per computer, which covered shipping (we got a container or half container to be sent over) and also support in the field.

A lot of donation companies use third world countries as landfills for parts, just shipping over boxes of parts that haven't been tested to see if they actually work, or how capable the hardware is. Admittedly, 366 MHz K6-2s weren't amazing even in 2003-2004, but they could at least run Open Office and surf basic internet sites. The server did have a dial-up modem in it that was shared by all the computers, so the internet was technically possible. Slow, I know, but dial-up was too expensive for many of these places, let alone broadband. I actually remember a project that downloaded portions of the Internet onto CDs (I think this one was out of Iowa State University) and we may have sent some of those over.

Two of the founders (husband and wife) actually moved to Uganda (not sure if it was temporary or permanent) to continue the work on that end and ensure things were running smoothly. If you're interested in getting involved or starting your own project they've also got an FAQ on the site on how to do it. Anyways, I guess that's my plug, but not all groups are throwing things into the dumpster, some really are trying to make a difference.
 
I work for my university's tech department and all the old machines and CRTs we have go to a local charity to be refurbished and shipped off to developing countries. We give em pretty decent machines too, basically anything out of warranty that is being replaced by the next years stock. Right now we are giving out Dell 240s that are quite capable of running XP and all the basic programs.

Nice to see them going to someone who will use them than a dumpster.
 
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