NYC does not have a Computer/Electronics Recycling Center like some cities. Thus a lot of city agencies either contract an out of state company like Advanced Recovery (thanks to the former mayor Bloomberg who did business with them before taking office), or it ends up the trash heap before it goes into in a landfill.
Back in '02, I negotiated with Apple Inc. and several schools in NYC's District #3 for an upgrade of their old Mac and Apple Labs. Thus for $50G per school, each school got the upgrades they wanted and Apple got their support contracts, though some schools were $120G to upgrade and other $20G to upgrade, things balanced themselves out. Added to the contract was an additional purchase of 1 laptop per student 1 to 2 years later when wifi was proved doable in a school (which it was). I could have gotten 10% per school but did not because I was a school employee and though it to be a conflict of interest. Then school per school, Apple came in and did the upgrades. But there were all these LCs (from old Mac 68Ks, LCs Pizza Boxes, and 500/5000 AIOs) all put into the basement for future disposal. I went and ask about how about donating some of the stuff to various non-profits. About 20% were donated. But the rest waited for the trash heap. I asked about selling them to the parents of the students and was told that they could not be sold.
Then I realized, there was a law in the books "Once (it) goes into the trash dump, its available to who ever wanted it for free to pick up and take away as soon as it touched the ground." That's the point, as soon as it touched the ground, so I could not hand the machine over to anyone but I had put it on the floor with the trash and if anyone there decided to take it then, well, thats the point. So through word of mouth, I got the students to get their parents and as I took the machines out to the trash one by one and put them on the floor, I signaled to the students/parents to go get it. And a lot of good machines ended up in good homes. Perhaps 12% of all the machines ended up in the dump when this was over. I managed to take a questionable LC III home from the trash with a cracked case no body wanted, just the pizza box, no keyboard or monitor. Back then I got it working when I got it home.
A lot of upper dept. heads got pissed, even though these machines were put in the trash by their orders. So it's an ego thing, its a "Keeping the poor, poor" thing. At least in NYC. So It's not a fiscal one. NYC Spends $5/pound of computer "junk" in disposing it when it gets carted away. I gave them a chance to make up the loss by selling the old machines like some other school districts do. I know Advanced Recovery sells each machine they pick up for 200% to 2000%, and in rare cases have sold a shipping containers stuffed with computer junk to governments like India at $5M per container!
This is the standard practice in NYC. in 2010 I could have picked up 220 laptops with their powerpacs (PCs and Macs) but was fired before I could intercept them. They are still doing it today; but I managed to save 1 Classic II from it. And I feel good.
Back in '02, I negotiated with Apple Inc. and several schools in NYC's District #3 for an upgrade of their old Mac and Apple Labs. Thus for $50G per school, each school got the upgrades they wanted and Apple got their support contracts, though some schools were $120G to upgrade and other $20G to upgrade, things balanced themselves out. Added to the contract was an additional purchase of 1 laptop per student 1 to 2 years later when wifi was proved doable in a school (which it was). I could have gotten 10% per school but did not because I was a school employee and though it to be a conflict of interest. Then school per school, Apple came in and did the upgrades. But there were all these LCs (from old Mac 68Ks, LCs Pizza Boxes, and 500/5000 AIOs) all put into the basement for future disposal. I went and ask about how about donating some of the stuff to various non-profits. About 20% were donated. But the rest waited for the trash heap. I asked about selling them to the parents of the students and was told that they could not be sold.
Then I realized, there was a law in the books "Once (it) goes into the trash dump, its available to who ever wanted it for free to pick up and take away as soon as it touched the ground." That's the point, as soon as it touched the ground, so I could not hand the machine over to anyone but I had put it on the floor with the trash and if anyone there decided to take it then, well, thats the point. So through word of mouth, I got the students to get their parents and as I took the machines out to the trash one by one and put them on the floor, I signaled to the students/parents to go get it. And a lot of good machines ended up in good homes. Perhaps 12% of all the machines ended up in the dump when this was over. I managed to take a questionable LC III home from the trash with a cracked case no body wanted, just the pizza box, no keyboard or monitor. Back then I got it working when I got it home.
A lot of upper dept. heads got pissed, even though these machines were put in the trash by their orders. So it's an ego thing, its a "Keeping the poor, poor" thing. At least in NYC. So It's not a fiscal one. NYC Spends $5/pound of computer "junk" in disposing it when it gets carted away. I gave them a chance to make up the loss by selling the old machines like some other school districts do. I know Advanced Recovery sells each machine they pick up for 200% to 2000%, and in rare cases have sold a shipping containers stuffed with computer junk to governments like India at $5M per container!
This is the standard practice in NYC. in 2010 I could have picked up 220 laptops with their powerpacs (PCs and Macs) but was fired before I could intercept them. They are still doing it today; but I managed to save 1 Classic II from it. And I feel good.