Ecology Center in Missoula coordinates computer recycling and training

We have a program here at the Ecology Center, in Missoula MT to
recycle used and end-of-life computers to individuals in our
community. In some ways it works out well.

I have a few apprentices
(young high school, or just out of school people) that can use the
experience they gain by refurbishing the machines and eventually
apply it to work with the nonprofits we work with (we also do new
computer installations, networking and technical consulting for
nonprofits). It provides good work skills for the apprentices, and
eventually leads them on to better jobs in the tech sector, with
nonprofits, or on to further schooling.

The biggest challenge with a project like this is that the
individuals getting the computers need to be trained to use the
machines, and so a large giving program to individuals likely will
bring with it a need to provide a substantial amount of training and
technical support over the long term. And you most likely have to
deal with any repairs or software reconfigurations that may be needed
yourself, as these individuals won’t be able to afford market rates
to get them. And older machines have a higher rate of failure than
new machines.

In our work with nonprofits (we’ve worked with over a hundred
nonprofits in the region in the last few years), we tend to work with
similar equipment (new) and configurations, and can train many
individuals at once–and then identify one individual in an
organization to try and provide support for the rest of the
organizations–and that one individual can relay support concerns
back to us from others in their organization, and carry back the
solutions to them (a good learning process for them).

And when an individual leaves one group and goes to work for another,
they can carry their skills to that group and can integrate with
their technical infrastructure quite easily–we get as lot of chair
jumping between organizations in this region. And the process of
machine upgrades in all of these nonprofits leave us with a continual
supply of older computers that we have originally setup and deployed
coming back to us to refurbish and put back out in the community.

With individuals it is much harder. I have found that while it is
very rewarding to put computers in the hands of needy individuals who
will use them, it has significantly raised my need to provide support
services to them–and that is usually not a cost that they can
afford, nor that i can easily absorb–thus my reliance on our
apprenticeship program. The apprentices refurbish and configure the
machines, and they provide the support for them. It’s a fairly good
model for both a training program for apprentices, and a giving
program for individuals. Fortunately, we do get enough grant
subsidies that allow me to devote some time to training and
supervising our apprentices, and buying some of the parts needed to
refurbish the computers.

Another tough one is being able to supply printers with the
computers. While a workgroup at a nonprofit may only have from one to
a few printers, each individual usually wants one. Older printers
tend to be not as available, or as easily refurbished–or not worth
the cost to do so. And today’s printers to varying degrees are not
always compatible with older computers. It’s near impossible to find
a decent cheap new printer with a serial interface for a use Mac for
instance, with 90%+ of the printers on the market coming with only
USB, or USB and parallel ports.

hope this helps,

Jim Coefield
Wild Rockies InfoNet
[email protected]