Used computers have high value once recycled

By Laura Markowitz

Every few years the computers used in labs around campus are recycled and replaced. Now, Rider will get paid to recycle, or trade in, old computers.

Each year during the summer break, Krystyna Rykowski, director of the Office of Information Technology (OIT) Support Services, would gather computers that were going to be recycled.

In previous years, Rider worked through Supreme Computers, a company that charged for each discarded computer. Rider was paying $25 for each computer shipped out, according to Rykowski. This year, Rhon Fitzwater, a technical support specialist, has found a new program through the Apple Computer Inc. web site.

“With Apple’s new program, we can now not only recycle our old equipment for free, but we can also trade in [sell back] the equipment that still has some residual value,” said Fitzwater.

According to the Apple web site, Apple’s Trade-In and Recycle Program for Education helps schools “recover any remaining value to help offset the cost of a new purchase.” By switching to Apple, the University will not only save the money previously being spent to ship computers out with the old company, but Apple will actually pay the school for each computer.

A third-party vendor, PowerON Services, LLC, provides the service to Apple and is responsible for any transactions conducted with customers.

Rider simply “sends Apple a list of machines [the University is recycling] and Apple gives us a quote for each computer,” Fitzwater said. The quote is based on system configuration, equipment condition and supply and demand within the secondary or used electronics market.

It also takes printers, keyboards and any other computer equipment. The company even accepts used computer equipment from other manufacturers.

Apple will pay between $5 and $100 for computers being traded in, but Rider receives no money for computers being recycled. “If the model is very old we will go back to Supreme Computers,” said Rykowski. Out of approximately 180 computers collected from labs, faculty and staff during the summer break, only 25 have no value at all.

For computers that are at least 5 years old, Apple will use parts only. What cannot be reused is recycled by the company.

Computers are “recycled through environmentally responsible processes that are consistent with all federal and state guidelines,” the official Apple web site states. This disposal of equipment coincides with what the web site calls Apple’s “eco-friendly product design.”

In the process of disposing the old equipment, Apple grinds down the hard drives or deletes all data on hard drives being resold in a “manner consistent with federal standards.”

Rider’s OIT staff cleans the hard drives so “no Rider information goes off campus,” said Fitzwater. “When Apple picks up the machines they are basically blank machines.”

In the past, Rider has donated computers to non-profit organizations. The organizations that were interested would send Rider a request, and they would be responsible for the pick-up.

This year, Rykowski does not know if Rider will be donating any computers again.

The computers Rider is recycling are a Bondi Blue, an original iMac from 1998 and a Dell GX1 from around the same year. The newest computers are the eMacs, which are worth the most money during trade-in.

Fitzwater believes the program will be a success.

“If all goes well with our trial run of the program, we will most likely be using it again
in the future,” he said.