PC recycler opens thrift shop.Byline: RETAIL NOTEBOOK By Joe Mosley The Register-Guard Lorraine Kerwood is venturing into a new corner of the old reduce-reuse-recycle triangle. The founder of Eugene's Computer Reuse and Recycling Center has gone retail, with a computer resale outlet just about ready to open in the nonprofit's sprawling recycling center at Second Avenue and Polk Street Polk Street is a street in San Francisco that travels northward from Market Street to Jefferson Street. It's attractions are the See's Candy flagship store at California Street, and is usually cleaned every Saturday by the neighborhood organization. . The store's grand opening is set for Aug. 14, assuming a volunteer is found to staff the counter. Meanwhile, customers can stop by the recycling office and arrange a private foray into Verb 1. foray into - enter someone else's territory and take spoils; "The pirates raided the coastal villages regularly" raid encroach upon, intrude on, obtrude upon, invade - to intrude upon, infringe, encroach on, violate; "This new colleague invades my the adjacent used computer shop. "Everything in here was tested and works - and we want to make sure it works, so it doesn't wind up in the trash," Kerwood says as she shows off the store's inventory. It's Macintosh-heavy, as is her adjacent recycling operation. She started out five years ago by recycling old Apple and Macintosh models Following is a brief summary of the current models in Apple's Macintosh family, all of which use Intel CPU chips. For a list of some of the earliest Macs by model number, see Macintosh models - early. , and the store's shelves are a testament to those origins - everything from candy-hued iMacs to a curdled cur·dle v. cur·dled, cur·dling, cur·dles v.intr. 1. a. To change into curd. See Synonyms at coagulate. b. cream-colored Macintosh "Lisa," an e-antique more than 15 years out of production. But there also are PC models with Pentium and other high-performance processors. "The majority of stuff will be like $150 for a whole setup," Kerwood says. "But the higher-end stuff will be about $250 to maybe $400." The center and store accept old computers from drop-in customers as well as school districts and other big users. The center also has a contract with Lane County's recently launched computer recycling Most major Computer manufacturers offer some form of recycling, often as a free replacement service when purchasing a new PC. At the user's request they may mail in their old computer, or arrange for pickup from the manufacturer. program to handle used computers either by refurbishing them or dismantling them into recyclable components. Kerwood's unease with the business side of things is the flip side Flip side In the context of general equities, opposite side to a proposition or position (buy, if sell is the proposition and vice versa). of her passion for recycling. "I have no idea how much we'll actually earn," Kerwood says when asked what kind of sales target she has in mind for the store. "But our main objective is to keep it out of the landfill." The volunteer-run operation - Kerwood tops the list at about 70 hours a week - moved into the leased Second and Polk building in February and expanded into its full 8,000 square feet in May. So there's motivation to make the nonprofit self-supporting. "My family's supported the nonprofit for five years, and that's got to change," she says. "Now we have overhead." Kerwood got started in computer recycling after taking an introductory computer class at Lane Community College in 1997 as she prepared to retrain re·train tr. & intr.v. re·trained, re·train·ing, re·trains To train or undergo training again. re·train for a new career. She had been a massage therapist until tendonitis tendonitis /ten·do·ni·tis/ (ten?do-ni´tis) tendinitis. ten·do·ni·tis n. Variant of tendinitis. and carpal tunnel carpal tunnel n. The space between the flexor retinaculum of the wrist and the carpal bones, through which the median nerve and the flexor tendons of the fingers and thumb pass. problems pushed her to change. She bought herself a Power Mac, and its hard drive promptly failed. She tried to fix it herself to avoid a repair bill, and ruined the hard drive. So she bought a couple of old Macintoshes from a secondhand store and began training herself. And after she'd repaired about 20 of them, she began giving them away. Her outfit became an official nonprofit agency in July 2002, operating out of her mother-in-law's garage until the need for more space necessitated the move to Second and Polk. Kerwood's mission has been twofold: keep computers out of the waste stream and provide usable computers to folks who couldn't afford to buy new ones. The recycling center will continue to dismantle computers and recycle their parts - huge boxes labeled for everything from "clean copper" to "dirty plastic" are lined up in the warehouse where volunteers disembowel dis·em·bow·el tr.v. dis·em·bow·eled or dis·em·bow·elled, dis·em·bow·el·ing or dis·em·bow·el·ling, dis·em·bow·els 1. To remove the entrails from. 2. To deprive of meaning or substance. computers left for recycling. The center accepts all computers for free, but charges $15 per monitor. The center will continue to offer free, refurbished computers to those who need but can't afford them, or for those who want to earn computers in return for 24 hours Adv. 1. for 24 hours - without stopping; "she worked around the clock" around the clock, round the clock of volunteer time. But the retail shop is intended to help the bottom line of the overall operation. "Whoever wants to spend money here, we're all for it," Kerwood says. Retail Notebook runs Thursdays. CAPTION(S): Volunteer Mike Day checks whether a hard drive is salvageable. The center lets people earn computers in return for 24 hours of volunteer time. |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion