Equipment Recycling Day thoughts

Many of us in Wharton Computing were hauling cartloads of old (and potentially busted) equipment, everything from CRT monitors and keyboards, to UPSs and old 1U pizza-box servers, as part of an equipment "recycling" effort.

It got me thinking about our technology purchases and how things have changed, and wanted to just put some ideas "out there".

Buy small.  Buy only what you need.  Buy a ultra-small form-factor desktop computer, instead of a full-blown mini-tower that you'll never upgrade.  Buy a laptop instead of that SFF desktop!  Buy a Blade server instead of a 2U or 1U server.  Virtualize your new server, instead of buying a new one!

Bug your vendors (Dell?  IBM?  Lenovo?  Microsoft?), and insist they think about the materials footprint of everything they sell.  Ask them about what they are doing about the end-of-life of their products, basically, how are they cleaning up after themselves.

For me, I'll continue to use a laptop as my primary computer.  I'll use the two Dell monitors sitting on my desk until they are completely unusable.  I'll recycle as much as possible, and drive others to do the same.

We filled a 15-foot truck with all kinds of equipment that we are hoping will be reused or recycled.  Let's make it a point that the next time we have an equipment recycling day, they can send a 15-foot truck, and it'll leave half-empty.

What can we do between now and then to make sure that happens?  Hit the comments with your ideas!

*** Special thanks to Sharon S. for working to put this all together, and to all of you out there who hauled, dragged, and yes, literally dropped (off) all this equipment.