[PLUG-TALK] Electronic recycling
Ted Mittelstaedt
tedm at portlandia-it.com
Wed Nov 8 10:12:17 UTC 2023
-----Original Message-----
From: PLUG-talk <plug-talk-bounces at lists.pdxlinux.org> On Behalf Of wes
Sent: Monday, November 6, 2023 5:06 PM
To: Off-topic and potentially flammable discussion <plug-talk at lists.pdxlinux.org>
Subject: Re: [PLUG-TALK] Electronic recycling
>as computers become more and more commoditized, they become more accessible to the low income and other marginalized populations >which were previously given a leg up by freegeek's existence. since that's not their biggest need any more,
>freegeek shifted focus to things that are of more value to them.
>this means that by coincidence, they now offer less value to you and me.
>but that doesn't mean they offer no value at all.
Well that's nice but what you are saying is completely at odds with what is written on FG's front page.
>pretty much everything they sell was donated. they are able to sell a pretty small percentage of what gets donated, almost all of it gets >recycled.
Their front web page says they give it back to the community at low or no cost. Yet their Hardware Grant program is closed/shut down, and that program was setup to give tech to non-profits and charities. And they are now pushing their Affordable Tech program which appears to cater to - what? Businesses - perhaps low-margin businesses, but profit-making entities.
I work at a 503(c) non-profit today. 15 years ago I didn't but FG was very helpful in supplying a lot of gear to several non-profits/charities I worked with at the time. Today? Nothing. If you are a non-profit no matter how worthwhile the work is that you are doing (and no, I don't consider ANY political campaign doing worthwhile work even if they are setup as a legal non-profit) then their attitude to you is "what's the color of your money"
A LOT of the small stuff - power supply "wall warts" and cabling and so forth - is simply a losing game to try and sell online - so before while some of that would go out through their store and stay out of the waste stream, today - as you say - it's all trashed/scrapped/recycled.
I get that they probably are keeping "Grandpa's old IBM XT that was dragged out of his closet when he died" out of the waste stream and not being tossed into a landfill, and diverting it to recycling but Metro can do that (and already does) and I know that with their model now that a lot of still usable small stuff is certainly going to the recycling instead of reused.
It just seems to me they want to trade on their reputation they grew of giving free PCs to the poor and charities and other non-profits. While I do agree that likely many charities (particularly political groups) are extremely snooty and picky and demand the best of the best, not all have their noses up in God's ass.
I am well aware there are PLENTY of charities out there who are run by leeches and I can understand if FG got burnt by a string of non-profits that acted like that and finally said "eff it" But if so then say so on their website. Don't say one thing on the front page of the website as a way of steering monetary donations to them and then do another.
Ted
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