Dave Butler's Recycle Computers Page

Recycle Computers

The Philadelphia Reuse Collaborative

is a computer recycling program which started when I saw a message posted by John Zelson, of the Corporation for National Service, to neighbors-online, a Philadelphia mailing list for neighborhood activists, on 5 July 1996, titled Getting Computers into Communities (for info on neighbors-online and other resources for neighborhood activists see my Guide to Electronic Mailing Lists.

I brought John's message to the attention of Stan Pokras, director of Nonprofit Technology Resources (NTR). Stan answered John with an offer to share resources, and the Philadelphia Reuse Collaborative was born. For more details see my History of Computer Recycling at the Philadelphia Reuse Collaborative.

Community Technology Centers
NTR is a regional affiliate of Community Technology Centers' Network. `CTCNet shares with Playing To Win, its founding organization, a recognition that, in an increasingly technologically dominated society, people who are socially and/or economically disadvantaged will become further disadvantaged if they lack access to computers and computer-related technologies.'

NTR is also a regional affiliate of the Technology Resource Consortium, `... an association of nonprofit Technology assistance organizations that provide education about and access to information technology to private and public nonprofit organizations.'

New Jersey: Share the Technology
Barry Cranmer's Share the Technology Computer Recycling Project posts online requests for computer donations from schools and nonprofits across the United States. Barry has run this organization for many years from his house in South Jersey. He was one of the few people in the area that already had a recycling project underway when John, Stan and I began work on the Philadelphia Reuse Collaborative in summer of 1996. Barry is a charter member of the Collaborative's advisory group.

Other Resources
I strongly recommended the mailing lists as the best place to get your questions answered. For quicker results you may wish to check out these related resources gathered by John Zelson and Barry Cranmer:

Mailing Lists

Computer recycling list, comprecycle, a place to share computer recycling ideas. Send a one-line message -- subscribe comprecycle your_name -- to listproc@mcfeeley.cc.utexas.edu
Community Technology Centers Network discussion list for computer recycling, ctcrecycling. Send a one-line message -- subscribe subscribe ctcrecycling -- to Majordomo@tristram.edc.org
For more on mailing lists in general see my Guide to Electronic Mailing Lists.