Chapter 18, Additional Case 1: Recycling Your Old Computer

Chapter 18, Additional Case 1: Recycling Your Old Computer

This case is best for groups.

Background

If you have recently purchased a new computer, you might be wondering what to do with the old one. According to "Millions of Obsolete PCs Enter Waste Stream" by Kim S. Nash on CNN Online, some 100 million computers are retired each year in the United States. Nearly 75 percent end up in closets, 15 percent go to landfills, and 10 percent are reused or recycled, a Tufts University researcher has found.

The federal program Computers for Learning donates government computers to schools. Similar programs donate computers to other kinds of nonprofit organizations. For links to many such programs, use a search engine to search for "computer recycling.

Your Assignment

Form small groups for this case; then decide how to split up the tasks listed here. The members of your group will be working on a project about recycling personal computers.

To complete this case, perform the following tasks:

  1. Study Chapter 18, focusing on understanding feasibility reports.
  2. Study the CNN Online article "Millions of Obsolete PCs Enter Waste Stream" for a basic understanding of the issues involved in computer recycling: the organizations that already coordinate such efforts, the kinds of equipment that are useful to schools, the tax advantages that result from donating, and so forth.
  3. Find out whether your college or university currently has a program to donate its used computers to nonprofit organizations. Some colleges and universities have such programs or have programs in which students fix and upgrade computers and then pass them along to organizations. The computer-science department at your college or university or the office in charge of charitable giving will know whether there is such a program at your school. Check your school's website, too.
  4. If there is a program at your college or university, interview the people responsible to determine whether they could use assistance in publicizing it. Perhaps they could use some publicity in the form of a page for the school's website or perhaps a flyer or brochure. If there is no program at your college or university, try to determine whether the computer-science department would be interested in starting one. Investigate other programs in your state to see whether they could use some assistance in the form of student help or publicity documents that your group could create.
  5. Prepare a 3,000-word report addressed to the appropriate officials at your college or university on steps that might be taken to create or expand its program of computer recycling or to coordinate a program with some other organization in your state.