E-Waste and the Frugal Propellerhead

I guess you could call me an E-Waste recycler, and really, I suppose I've been doing this for a long time going back to the mid-90s when I was buying up IBM PS/2 machines to learn server management. Of course, there was no noble intent back in those days (not sure whether there is in these days either), since I was just buying what I thought was interesting AND could afford. I will have to say that I've always been abhorrent of "waste" in general. And that goes for leaving the bottom few ounces of drink in a cup all the way to having to have the newest clothes (or game system) every few months. Not only is it not sustainable resource-wise; it's downright stupid. This is especially true in the technology field where actual performance changes happen so fast, but we humans only ever use a very small percentage of it. So, we buy new and literally throw out old (or 18 months old, according to Gordon Moore).... which leads to this:

....and that's the nice view! What it ends up looking like when it arrives in China, India, other random place is this:

No, this is not my garage, although the bottom picture does bear a bit of a resemblance. The unfortunate thing is that this is the better scenario, as compared to the folks who just throw this stuff out with their garbage and it ends up in a landfill where the chemicals from these devices are able to leach into the water-table. Probably the worse of the products are the old CRTs which have a LOT of dangerous products in them, but actually have the potential to kill you long after they've been unplugged:

 

This is what the problem looks like on a global scale:

So, back to me (because you know it's all about ME). I'm sure most of you are familiar with my rantings regarding the "Walmartization" of society, right? Where, we buy the cheapest possible, then just throw it out when it breaks? This of course, is probably all due to my Mom drilling into me to buy quality products that last. I'm certain the reality has as much to do with the Chinese cultural's need to be competitive show-offs, but that's beside the point. At any rate; the die is cast, so I'm just "hard-wired" this way now. What brings on this little soapbox oration today?

?????! This 11 year old computer came to live with us a few weeks ago. One of my long-time clients, bought a "new" ThinkPad from me, because she's going back to get her Master's degree, and the R52 that I did for her about 4 years ago is getting long in the tooth. So, she got an X300, the R52 was updated and reloaded for her daughter, and she brought me the daughter's T30 for retirement. I didn't remember that the machine was that "new" till it arrived, thinking that it was a PIII-class A2x machine. The T30s were the smaller, light-weight executive laptops of their day and were a match for the A31 workstations (hardware-wise). Actually, I had used one of these many moons ago before the T4x, and X300...... but I digress. Anyway, it ran "dog-slow" on the 512Mb of RAM and needed a reload in the worse way with all kinds of junk-software installed on it. This morning as I'm here babysitting the 109 updates after having gotten the OS up to SP3, AND installed 1.5GB of RAM and a wireless card, I realized that the vast majority of it's brethren have gone to live in the great briefcase in the sky. 

It really doesn't have to be, or should be this way. Right now, my dining room table looks about like this. There are 4 A31s, 1 T42p, 1 T60, 1 Z61m, ThinkPads and 1 HP LaserJet 4000n out there. Oh, there's also a first generation PowerBook G4, 12" as well. What the *#&# am I doing!?! Here's the thing. My wife moved to a new school district last year and although, we aren't talking about starving kids without textbooks, they aren't as well-endowed (technology-wise) as her former district (and 3rd graders are loooow on the techology-totem-pole), so there's one small computer lab in the building and two desktops in each classroom. As you can imagine, this wasn't a very workable solution for my, MBA trained, former Ernst & Young consultant wife, so she kept asking me what I was going to do with this or that "old" laptop. And when the answer would be that I didn't have any plans since it had been replaced by old-so-and-so, she'd get a gleam in her eye. About a year ago, things came together when various relatives whom I had set up with laptops, grew out of their 1st machines and brought them to me when they got replacements. This amounted to 2 T4x, and 3 A3x computers. Around that time, I had upgraded my wife from a Z61m to a T61, so there was a number of computers cluttering up my office. 

One day (I'm sure after, much cogitating), she wanted to know if maybe kids could get onto some learning games with those old laptops. My distracted answer was "of course", and there you have it: BunnyNet. By the last half of the spring semester, we had a little group of 3 A31s, the T42p, and her old Z61m working in her classroom. Over the course of this summer, I received some random donations, ranging from a T60, to the truly random PowerBook G4, and now the T30. They all needed work of one kind or another; some hard drives, others, wireless cards and almost all of them, RAM. This in combination with the prevailing educational trend of B.Y.O.D. (bring your own device), we'll be able to get them all on he school's network. 

Is this going to end E-Waste..... no. What's the point then? If we can prolong the use cycle, we can slow it down. Especially if there's a need out there for it. Why can't we divert some of those containers and retask some of this old technology? Yes, I get that there are practical considerations to make it work, but does anyone think that it's something a good "non-profit" can't tackle? Right now, I'm busy with my one classroom-worth, trying to turn E-Waste into something useful for a little while.