Posted on: Thursday, May 19, 2005
Old computers wanted
Advertiser Staff
That old computer collecting dust in your closet or garage could get a new lease on life thanks to the Hawaii Computers for Kids Program.
Deborah Bbooker • The Honolulu Advertiser Call the city's recycling office at 692-5410 or visit www.opala.org. Windows-based Pentium II or faster models, as well as PowerMacs will be accepted for reuse in Hawai'i schools and nonprofit organizations. Working monitors with 17-inch screens or larger also will be accepted.
Obsolete or nonworking computer equipment with scrap value will be accepted for recycling by the Honolulu Refuse Division, which works with Lenox Metals and Island Recycling to dispose of the items.
"One of the big draws is that the Computers for Kids Program offers a tax donation receipt, which donors can use for tax purposes," said Ken Goldstein, founder of the nonprofit.
After receiving computers, the program reformats the hard drives, which wipes out most personal data stored in the computer, Goldstein said. Donors also can reformat the hard drives themselves, he said.
Goldstein said he's lost track of how many computers and components the organization has received over the years, "but I estimate it's in the 10,000 range."
Equipment that's unusable by the Computers for Kids Program is sent overseas, where it is stripped of usable metals and components.
"That keeps an estimated quarter-million pounds out of our landfills each year," Goldstein said.
The program is teaming up with CompUSA and the City and County of Honolulu to hold a computer recycling day from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday in the parking lot of CompUSA's store at 604 Ala Moana.
Alan Hornstein takes in old computers at his recycling business, Lenox Metals. The business in Campbell Industrial Park works with the Honolulu Refuse Division to dispose of the computers.
Recycling
