[NPMUG] Goodwill CRC annual report for 2009

[Robert A. Donaldson]

Dear Mac friends:

We've closed the books on our efforts for 2009 at the Goodwill Computer Recycling Center. Everyone even remotely involved needs a hearty thank you.

We informally began this endeavor eight-years-or-so ago after a brief exchange before an NPMUG meeting at MacOutfitters in Cranberry.
Len Thompson, then a teacher, told Bruce Wells, also then a teacher, about several Macs being put into a dumpster at the school district where they taught.

"What was wrong with them?" someone asked. "Nothing. They just wanted to get rid of them," Len replied.

Soon, the issue took over the meeting. It was soon asked, "Why can't we get these unwanted Macs, tune them up and give them to people who could use them?"

Why not, indeed.

We soon gathered in Dave Sevick's garage to fix the first handful of Macs (500 series and 5200 series). We gathered every month to pass out free Macs to food pantry clients at the Lighthouse in Middlesex Twp., Butler County. "A loaf of bread and a Macintosh" was a satisfying slogan.

We were offered permanent space at the Center for Hope in Ambridge, where we learned you can't save everything. In addition to our then-monthly work days, we wired the place with over 80 ethernet jacks and four donated switches. We set up a Mac computer lab for the Center's use.

We were fortunate to partner with Goodwill in March of 2007, and moved to their Computer Recycling Center in Pittsburgh's Lawrenceville neighborhood. We set up an efficient work flow that allowed us to image multiple Macs at the same time, thanks to Charles Firth's wizardry. We had about 2,000 square feet of work area. We began to gather once a week for workdays.

When UPMC bought the building for a parking lot for the new Children's Hospital a year later, we relocated to our current space in Goodwill's headquarters on East Carson St. on Pittsburgh's South Side. Our work area shrank to about 450 square feet.

We are now looking forward to another move in the coming months as Goodwill moves its entire operation to two, single-floor buildings just blocks from our former location in Lawrenceville.

Here's what we've done this year:

We refurbished 680 Macintoshes, and handled 1,960 miscellaneous items and accessories. These refurbished items have a total value of $107,048.99. All monies from the sale of our efforts through the ComputerWorks store go to Goodwill.

This year, we began to handle de-manufacturing responsibilities for Macs. We've de-manufactured 964 Macs, monitors and accessories.

We also began accounting for the weight of what we handle to conform to standard measurements of computer recycling and better help Goodwill keep track of what we do. Our refurbished product amount weighed 25,214.59 pounds. Our de-manufactured items weighed 14,542.25 pounds. That's just under 22 tons. We also began keeping track of computer and monitor serial numbers this year.

For perspective, we refurbished 595 Macs in 2008, and 450 Macs in 2007.

One thing remains from the beginning. We continue to distribute free Macs through referrals from people we've dealt with in the community over the years. You see, not every Mac we refurbish can be sold in Goodwill's ComputerWorks store. Some have case cracks, or scratched screens, or the sound or ethernet ports don't work. But they're otherwise functional, and of use to someone who just can't afford a computer.

If there's a new computer in your holiday season, please remember Goodwill as a place for the old one. If it's a Mac, we'll do everything that's possible to give it more life. If it's, uh, the "other thing," Goodwill will responsibly de-manufacture and recycle the components at no cost to you. Please tell your friends.

Have a happy holiday season, and thank you for your support.

We'll have our first workday of 2010 on Friday, January 8. We hope to see you there....


Robert A. Donaldson
radonaldson at mac.com
(H) 412-922-3303
(M) 412-477-9188