 |
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
||
 |
 |
|
||
|
||||
 |
|
|||
|
||||
|
||||
RecyclingJanuary 04, 2007 Before recycling became hip, there was good ol' New England frugality -- which wasn't confined to New England, needless to say. "Waste not, want not," said Benjamin Franklin or one of those founding daddy guys, long before big houses, maximum spending, and minimal mileage-per-gallon became status symbols. I hang my laundry out even when I'm not paying the utility bills. 'Nuff said. In my time I've trucked a few computer components and peripherals to the dump and paid the (modest) fee to dispose of them, but over the years I've learned more about the hazardous materials in these cyber-parts, especially the pre-LCD monitors. I started hearing about computer recycling programs: volunteers who rehabbed usable old computers and donated them to low-income people and shoestring organizations that wouldn't have access to them otherwise. Cool, I thought. After Morgana V was up and running, what to do with Morgana IV? Morgana IV, to my mind, no longer existed, but her vital organs -- CPU, monitor, mouse, keyboard, and speakers -- were available for donation. I started calling around. The island's computer shops seemed unfamiliar with the concept of computer rehabbing and recycling. If I wanted to donate a computer, the county jail and M.V. Community Services were suggested. I wasn't about to donate a six-and-a-half-year-old hard drive with incipient Alzheimer's to anybody, not without an intermediate rehab. A couple hours of Web research turned up no useful leads. Hmm, I thought. Here I had had the impression that all sorts of individuals and nonprofits were receiving, restoring, and donating old computers to people who needed them, but when it came to specifics -- tracking down someone who actually did it, with a phone number I could call and a physical address I could ship to -- these were elusive. I have had similar impressions over the years, and I think I'm not alone. How many of us assume that if Bad Thing X happens, then Good Fairy Y will be available to help out? If the husband gets violent, we'll find shelter; if fire destroys the house, insurance will cover most of it? When Bad Thing X actually does happen, it's rarely that easy, and sometimes the help available is hopelessly inadequate. But our belief in Good Fairy Y helps us to believe that there is justice in the world, or at least a minimal safety net. "There'll be pie in the sky when you die," sang Joe Hill. Most of us still believe it, most of the time. I was ranting about all of the above when a writer-musician friend with considerable electronic facility asked if my old computer might be useful to a pianist friend of his who wanted to try composing on another kind of keyboard. "Damned if I know," I said, and went home to review the specs. The prospects seemed pretty good. Of course, being born-and-bred New England frugal, I still had the boxes the computer came in. I erased all my data, removed programs that I'd reinstalled on Morgana V, and packed up the parts. My friend's pianist friend just came to pick them up. He gave me one of his CDs in trade. Do I feel virtuous? Not especially. Maybe I've just kicked the disposal problem downstream a bit. But at least I've passed a usable piece of equipment on to someone who can use it. It's out of my hands, and it's out of the dump -- for a while longer at least. Not bad.
|
|
|||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
 |
|
|||
 |
|
|||
Home - Writing - Editing - About Susanna - Bloggery - Articles - Poems - Contact Copyright ©
Susanna J. Sturgis. All rights reserved. |
||||