old 17" - 21" crt's - pc's too

[John Costello]

On Sat, 24 Dec 2005, Bill Ward wrote:
> On 12/23/05, Dan Bethe <dan_bethe at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > > why dont "we" volunteer to take it in, clean it up
> > > and recycle these "unacceptable throw aways" ...
> > > i'm sure that we can find some low income folks that
> > > would die to get these freebies, esp if the various
> >
> > Ahoy there.  Check out http://isfisf.org in the east bay and/or ask them what
> > other such orgs exist in SFBA.
> 
> A lot of "computer recycling" is really just shipping the stuff in
> containers to 3rd world countries with poor environmental laws where
> they are crushed, poisoning the local population with lead, mercury,
> etc.

See my last post about Alameda County Computer Resource Center.  They do 
not ship items to the third world.
 
> Building Linux boxes and giving them to poor people locally would be a
> much wiser plan.  And if they have wifi then the people can even go
> online if they live in Mtn View, Sunnyvale, or any of the other cities
> that are putting up free wifi...

In Portland, OR and Olympia, WA there is an organization called FreeGeek 
<http://www.freegeek.org/> that reclaims the components.  Additionally, 
they ask people to volunteer a few hours of time, during which time they 
teach the volunteers how to take apart and put together computers.  After 
so many hours, the volunteers get to build their own computers from the 
parts at hand.

> --
> Help bring back the San Jose Earthquakes - http://www.soccersiliconvalley.com/
> 


-----
John Costello - cos at indeterminate dot net
"You cannot propel yourself forward by patting yourself on the back."--Unknown