Are you familiar with
Frame.work laptops?
You are missing the point, entirely. We don't BUY anything. Why should we contribute to the problem of increasing eWaste -- instead of making use of the stuff that's already "available"?
The amount of USABLE kit that is DISCARDED, annually, is beyond anything that you can imagine. It is discarded because IT folks decide it's time for another upgrade cycle. Because MS wants to replenish their coffers. Or, because of the budgetary "if we don't SPEND it, we won't get MORE, next year" attitude. We had a donor who would round up ALL of their surplus electronic equipment and ship it to us. An 18-wheeler, every month. ONE donor. Think about the hospitals with 3000 seats. University. Large employers. Those photos of "inventory"? That's two, maybe three, people putting in a few hours a week refurbishing donated machines.
It is incredibly inefficient to "recycle" this stuff. Because it takes a lot of labor to disassemble it into "pure" materials.
Copper and aluminum heatsinks -- each separate from each other -- have to be removed. Plastic has to be discarded (no market for plastic). SIMMs/DIMMs/CPUs with gold pins/fingers have to be removed from the computer and processed to remove the gold plating. "Chips" are just bits of plastic. The laminations in transformers are ferrous and can be recycled -- after you've removed the copper wire that is wound through them. Some of the materials in batteries can be recycled -- by disassembling the battery. The tin case can be recycled -- after all of the things inside it have been removed and separated from it. The wire in the power cord can be recycled -- after you've rid it of that insulation.
The batteries in a UPS are worth ~21c per pound. So, the standard 12V 7.2AHr battery found in many UPSs is worth less than a dollar. Yet, sells for $25 - $50. Surely not just for the electrons and holes inside it! So, a small UPS with 1 (typically 2) such batteries is "worth" about a buck (the balance because of the value of the large, heavy transformer inside).
[So, if I leave the batteries for you to recycle (because they are toast and I'll have to buy new ones) and offer you a dollar for this UPS, you've made a nice profit! And, you have diverted those other goods from a landfill AND from having to disassemble them for recycling! "Gee, I need 12 of them..."]
CRTs? Good luck. You may be lucky to get a third-world country to accept them and deal with the toxic materials they contain.
As I said, a PC is worth 10c per pound. Weigh
your PC. Multiply by $0.10. Compare that number to the PRICE you paid for it. The
difference is the effort (plus SMALL profit) that is required to convert it's recycled materials back into a usable PC.
And, if you don't recycle, then you DISCARD. Pile them in land fills and pretend they aren't a problem. For you OR your kids!
If, instead, you can REFURBISH them and put them back in use, then you have reclaimed "all" of their value. If you can't refurbish but can REPURPOSE, then you have similarly reclaimed value. These being preferable to the costly RECYCLE step that is the only other alternative to avoid DISCARD.
I can repair items (REFURBISH) and give them new life. But, there is a limit to how much you can do this. Because finding people who will want those repaired items (and NOT pester me if they later break -- no warranty included) is hard. I can't GIVE AWAY 65 inch TVs -- people would rather buy a new one and know that they can bring it back to the store if there is a problem.
Electric wheelchairs? The one I showed has a
list price north of $40K. You'd think folks would be eager to get one FOR FREE!? Ah, but what do they do when something breaks? When the batteries need to be replaced ($1100)? When they need it adjusted to fit their body shape and its changes? So, you use disability insurance, or SSI, or <whatever> and go through the paperwork to BUY one (or have one bought FOR you). Meanwhile, the person who previously owned my two chairs has died or moved on to another chair (as DME, they are replacable at 5 yr intervals). The chair shown has *3* miles on its odometer.
Laptops are the one thing that we can always find homes for. As seen in the photo, that used to be the case with decktop PCs. But, now people don't want to dedicate that much space to a desktop. And, are content replacing a PC after a few years (instead of upgrading a PC). Similarly, no one wants a recycled phone; they can get a new one from their provider (by signing a contract, etc.)
There are countless kids who can't afford laptops. So, why not give the ones that can be refurbished to them? And, why not TEACH them something -- FUN -- in the process? So, they learn that computers need not be about web surfing or designing web pages but can actually DO things (like drive robots)? Let someone else teach them how particular industries tackle these problems. All we want to do is spark an interest and find homes for kit that would otherwise be buried under soil!
if you want to make it difficult to resell a laptop - that has been accomplished with Windows already. I'd know, I was part of the system that does exactly that, the BIOS gets disabled remotely. There's the reason that business fleets have Intel vPro processors, and more.
