Recycling Effort Really Computes

Computers roll in by the truckload--ancient Apples, old IBMs and hoary Hewlett-Packards.

Once destined for the dump, the castoffs are being saved and shipped to schools.

Thousands of working machines and others in need of slight repair are being thrown away by corporations and government agencies trying to keep up with the latest advances.

Rather than letting them pile up in warehouses and landfills, volunteers for the 3-month-old Computer Recycling Center, tucked in a Silicon Valley industrial park, fix the computers up and give them away.

“It’s wrong to be throwing the computers in the garbage,” said Mark Hass, founder of the nonprofit center.

Thousands of schools lack the money or the technical expertise to obtain computers and train students to use them, Hass said. “It solves a need for them (companies) and it solves a need for the schools,” he said.