Transcript for "Hyper-Obsolescence", April 28th, 2000.

http://dw.kqed.org/2000/04/28/transcript.html

[Fair Use: For Educational/Research Purposes Only]

[snip]

SM: Even if you are not a collector, that old computer in your garage may have more life than you might think. This is Steve Wyatt. He's the executive director of the Computer Recycling Center in Santa Clara. What do you do here?

Steve Wyatt: Every day we get 20,000 pounds or more of computer equipment that's brought here by individuals and businesses, things they aren't going to use anymore, and rather than throw it into the landfill, they bring it to us. We've got items that look complete, items that look like parts have been taken out. We actually want to go through and evaluate this and reuse as much as possible, reuse it by donating it to schools and to nonprofits, or giving it hobbyists. These are parts, as we have gone through and disassembled computers, we have tested the parts, and these are the parts that have tested bad. Circuit boards, with chips, mother boards. We have hard drives, floppy drives. We have got cables down there. Over here, we have got boxes and boxes of brand-new items that came from manufacturers in Silicon Valley, of items that have already become obsolete. Brand-new items. A couple years old. We are finding from the items donated here most people in businesses keep their computers for two years or less. Every month across this country, There are two million pounds of computer equipment going into landfills that people don't recycle and don't reuse.

SM: They are not so obsolete?

SW: Not at all. Still items that schools, nonprofit educational programs, students can still use them to do research, get on the net, or do their homework.

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-- Anonymous, May 14, 2000

Answers

Computer Recycling Center in Santa Clara

http://www.crc.org/

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2000