Nice post, Chris. I'll add a note from my own experience working as a board member on a non-profit recycling organization a few decades ago.
One of the harsh realities of the recycling scene is that non-profits are absolutely essential to build markets for recyclables. Until the markets are grown for the recyclables, no profit-making business is interested. But the flip side is that the second a non-profit successfully develops a profitable market for a given waste stream, for-profit organizations step in and take over that market. Savvy non-profit recycling organization managers realize and plan for that. But the net result is that non-profit recycling organizations are critically important to increase the sum of waste streams that are economically recyclable, but doomed to being perpetually underfunded because when they succeed in building a market for the recyclables of a given waste stream, they lose the business to for-profits. For example, the SaniPacs of this world have not been picking up recyclables for very long. But the markets for the recyclables they now pick up were built by non-profit recycling centers. Buyers for the recyclables have to be found and a critical mass of volume has to be achieved before the Sanipacs of the world step in. And that is the task of the non-profit recycling organization. Reducing the hazard of the electronics waste stream through recycling is important stuff and the ability to place computers with folks who otherwise could not afford them puts a real sugar plum coating on the activity. We had no such opportunity when we were building markets and contributed volume for recycled newspapers, cardboard, glass, and plastics. But the bottom line is that non-profit recycling is about civic-mindedness and building a better world, not about turning a profit. It's an important activity that can't happen unless citizens are willing to volunteer and not expect even a minimum wage, let alone a state of the art computer. My 2 cents, Paul -- Universal Interoperability Council <http:www.universal-interop-council.org> _______________________________________________ EUGLUG mailing list [email protected] http://www.euglug.org/mailman/listinfo/euglug
