Refurbishing old computers for the needy

[andrewrost3241981]

I am thinking about starting a program where I would accept old computers as donations, refurbish them if needed, and then donate them to charitable organizations (such as goodwill) who would resell them to the needy. I am considering doing this to help the needy obtain computers who otherwise might not have one. I am also doing this to gain more experience and possibly create some publicity for my business. I have some considerations/questions though.

1. I would have to wipe the hard drives. I would then have to install some OS on the computer, unless the needy person or charitable organization somehow had enough money to buy a copy of Windows. I would probably have to install some distribution of Linux on it. Do you think that needy people would want a computer that had Linux on it instead of Windows?

2. What would I have to do legally to do this? How would the government know that I was really refurbishing all of the computers and giving them to charity and not just accepting them from donors and then stripping them for parts for my own use or profit?

3. I would have to properly recycle the parts that were bad or were too old for use. I would have to pay to recycle them. Would there be a way for me to accept donations and keep them separate from my own personal and business funds to pay for recycling without having to start some formal charitable organization or other legal entity? If any legal work is required, what would it be (I am in the United States)?

4. If I did this, would there be any other legal requirements for me to follow?

5. Do you think this would be a good idea or is there some other way to recycle old computers for the needy and get experience besides creating this program? I have looked around my area and have not really found any type of organization that refurbishes computers for the needy.

 

[cmonova]

We do this but I really never looked at legalities of any kind. If customers want to give us their "old" systems we take them. Over time we get the system cleaned up, reloaded, etc and ready to go.

We go to customers throughout the year and obiously sometimes you run across a family with one computer and a bunch of kids sharing for the sake of saving money (like alot of familes) we make note of that.

We will then contact those families and tell them we have refurbished systems and would be really like to give their family one if they don't mind. Answer is always yes.

Don't really care about publicity, or people knowing about it becuase we really do it because it makes us feel good about it.

 

[hondablaster]

1. I would have to wipe the hard drives. I would then have to install some OS on the computer, unless the needy person or charitable organization somehow had enough money to buy a copy of Windows. I would probably have to install some distribution of Linux on it. Do you think that needy people would want a computer that had Linux on it instead of Windows?

I am glad you posted this....I like helping people for free. I feel good! One of my big things though is that beggars cant be choosers! If someone calls me and says can you frankenstien me this junk, and I know they are struggling. I just mix all the good parts together install ubuntu and say here you go..... And hype it a bit that it doesnt get viruses as easy and its a great lil internet/workstation so they feel better about it.

Ive done this on at least 4 occasions. One thing I realize if they have the money for an OS I tell them to save up and buy a new cheapie from walmart. It makes no sense to spend 75-100 bucks on a PC that is worth $50. Also part of me feels like my kindness is getting exploited if they dont like the free Ubuntu! (You have money for the OS then you dont need me to help you for free!!!! There is a line between unfortunate and cheap)

Poorer and unfortunate people tend to have more PC problems based on my experiance and im sure if its a windows machine I will get that dreaded call..... Hey can you remove these popups and virses for free? I warn them in advance I know barley anything about ubuntu or linux so that they are not caught off guard when I can no longer help them. I hope this helped give you some insight.

 

[JosephLeo]

I am thinking about starting a program where I would accept old computers as donations, refurbish them if needed, and then donate them to charitable organizations (such as goodwill) who would resell them to the needy. I am considering doing this to help the needy obtain computers who otherwise might not have one. I am also doing this to gain more experience and possibly create some publicity for my business. I have some considerations/questions though.

1. I would have to wipe the hard drives. I would then have to install some OS on the computer, unless the needy person or charitable organization somehow had enough money to buy a copy of Windows. I would probably have to install some distribution of Linux on it. Do you think that needy people would want a computer that had Linux on it instead of Windows?

2. What would I have to do legally to do this? How would the government know that I was really refurbishing all of the computers and giving them to charity and not just accepting them from donors and then stripping them for parts for my own use or profit?

3. I would have to properly recycle the parts that were bad or were too old for use. I would have to pay to recycle them. Would there be a way for me to accept donations and keep them separate from my own personal and business funds to pay for recycling without having to start some formal charitable organization or other legal entity? If any legal work is required, what would it be (I am in the United States)?

4. If I did this, would there be any other legal requirements for me to follow?

5. Do you think this would be a good idea or is there some other way to recycle old computers for the needy and get experience besides creating this program? I have looked around my area and have not really found any type of organization that refurbishes computers for the needy.

Well, as a long time scrap dealer I can tell you that the government as a standard; not law, removes the hard drives from all of their computers before selling them off. If you are in California there are very stringent laws about handling old computer equipment, so you might want to check a lawyer about that. He will tell you to get a notice from the EPA that you are allowed to handle "Computer Waste" and allowed to store said waste.

If it is charity only then you will probably want to open a NPO or "Non-Profit Organization" and put a notice in your shop. This is actually a good way to gain some bonus trust from you companies. For example, name the NPO in your name like "Joseph Leo Foundation" and advertise it in your literature and flyers. Say something like "We are proud sponsors of the Joseph Leo Foundation" or something like that.

The old junk you would legally have to recycle it IF it were contaminated with a hazardous material, but casings are totally fine to throw away in the trash (although it's very unethical for any business to just carelessly throw away stuff that is easily recyclable.)

Another thing you can do is if your program gains some popularity is sell some ad placement in the new computers like set up an HTML shortcut on the desktop to a companies website or something. This in turn gives you profit, which can in turn be used to pay for any recycling that will cost you money. Although if you gain enough bulk junk material (Say 1 pallat at the very least) you can actually sell the materials. I have been in the scrapping business since I was a child- I had truckloads of things from Metals, to plastic to paper products. EVERYTHING in bulk has value to it.

 

[Kenhelms]

Well, as a long time scrap dealer I can tell you that the government as a standard; not law, removes the hard drives from all of their computers before selling them off.

The government only removes and disposes of the hard drives if they had classified material on them.

If they didnt then they either use universal purge tool 1.5.2 or uni-shred pro 3.31 to wipe the data. The hard drive is then passed thru the DRMS ranks and finally sold to the private joe. They try to keep them if they can because either thru law enforcement re utilization or thru the educational sector and special needs, it helps to keep costs down.

 

[JosephLeo]

Maybe that's certain sections of the country then. Because where I am we used to get PC's from the state by the hundreds and they told us that should we find any hard drives they be sent back. We were also forced to sign a few documents stating that the data is still theirs and that were not even allowed to look.

It was scary dealing with them, but as a recycling company just about everything is risk and fear.

 

[Kenhelms]

yea if you were getting it from a grey seller, and not central management services, etc. then they were most likely also be in charge of the wiping and disposal. Almost all of them remove the drives to eliminate the risk.

I would find out where your states CMS services are, they are the ones that receive them after DRMS is done with them. It would have the highest probability of having good parts and complete systems.

There is also a program called Computers for Learning. That may be able to help you if you are a non-profit etc.