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Alameda County Computer Resource Center

a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization

Obsolescence is Just a Lack of Imagination

Announcements

We will be closed Saturday, August 30th through Monday, September 1st, for the Labor Day Weekend.

LinuxWorld 2008

Come see us at LinuxWorld at Moscone Center in San Francisco. We're running an e-waste collection event August 4-7, and will be collaborating with Untangle and GES on Installfest for Schools August 5-7.

East Bay Express Award

The ACCRC has been called the "Best Place To Responsibly Dispose Of Your Old Electronics" East Bay Express Best Of

Current TV

Filmmaker Graham Meriwether profiles ACCRC in The Saints of E-Waste on Current TV.

CBS News/Couric & Co 1/10/08:

Check out a recent CBS story about our organization at The E-Waste Crusader

Maker Faire 2008, May 3rd & 4th

Meet the Makers: Maker Faire: May 3-4, 2008

We will be at MAKE Magazine's annual Maker Faire in San Mateo, California on May 3-4, 2008.

Last year we were Silicon Death Valley. This year we're showcasing The Skull:

In 2006 at Maker Faire we built a parallel computing cluster, powered by our veggie-oil-generator, using Linux and the recycled hardware that people brought to us. Photos of previous year's events can be found on our Flickr page.

You want to donate your electronics to us but are located in Poughkeepsie, NY?

ECS Refining will donate their services to properly recycle all un-refurbishable material donated to ACCRC from out-of-state. They are a reputable and unbelievably adaptable recycler who wants to help you recycle your electronics with ACCRC and give refurbished computers to those without.

However, this does not leave you completely off the hook, as we have yet to find a matter transmitter or other source of free transportation so at this point there are transport fees that must be charged for your donation.

If you would like to donate your electronics to us from outside the State of California, go to Outside-of-California Donations to make arrangements.

No Fees

We want it all and we won't charge any fees for your stuff! See No Recycling Fees for details.

Extended Hours

We want it all so bad, we will get up an hour earlier! Starting November 2nd, 2006 we will open at 9AM, Mondays through Fridays.

Household Electronics Pick-Up Service

Free for Berkeley residents.

If you reside in Berkeley, we will come pick up your household electronics at no charge. Call our Electronics Pick-up Line at 528-4755 and leave us a voice mail. We will return your call, answer any questions and make arrangements if you wish to have us pick-up your encroaching computers and other electronic stuff.

This program is currently under development, so please bear with us while we work out the bugs.

Check out some of our founder's hair-brained ideas at Aftermath-Technologies.

Got old computers or other electronics?

Picture of warehouse

We'll take it! We will recycle anything that you can plug into a power outlet. This means we will recycle your computer, VCR, television, copy machine, and even your microwave and toaster, but not your large appliances such as a washing machine or refrigerator. When you give us your computer, you will receive a tax write-off, and we will attempt to fix your equipment and then give it away to someone who is unable to afford to buy a computer. If we are unable to reuse your equipment, it will be recycled in an environmentally friendly manner.

To donate your equipment, simply bring it to us during our open hours. No appointment is needed. Nothing is too old or too broken. We only charge fees for degaussing and for non-local pick-ups.

Know someone who needs a computer?

Refurbished Computers

We give free refurbished computers to schools, non-profit organizations, and economically and/or physically disadvantaged individuals. Although our computers are all old enough that they were discarded by their previous owners, the ones that we refurbish are still perfectly adequate for most home, school, and office applications. Our refurbished systems all run a Free software GNU/Linux operating system.

To apply for one or more computers, please print one of our three placement applications: school, non-profit, or individual, and then fax, mail, or bring us the completed form.

Want to volunteer?

You don't have to know anything about computers to volunteer here; we will teach you! We will show you how to fix, how to break, and how to identify computer parts, pieces, bits, and doodads. We will teach you how to install and use Suse and/or Ubuntu GNU/Linux. We will show you the difference between a Mac Classic and a Mac SE. If need be, we will teach you how to use a screwdriver.

If you would like to volunteer, simply fill out the volunteer application and bring it to us. We accept physical labor volunteers on weekdays, any time we are open. On Saturdays, from 12 to 5, we accept cerebral volunteers. If you are incapable of lifting heavy objects, come on Saturdays. Otherwise, show up whenever you like and be prepared to get dirty and sweaty.

Frequently Asked Questions

What do you do with this stuff?

If your equipment is in working or easily repairable order, we will fix it and place it with a charity, non-profit, school, or low-income or disabled individual somewhere on the planet Earth. If we cannot reuse the equipment, we will disassemble it and send the base elements off to approved, environmentally friendly secondary recyclers. Cathode ray tubes are smelted, allowing the lead to be removed from the glass so that both can be recycled. Circuit boards are ground up so that a number of different metal recovery processes can be used to reclaim the various nasty alloys that are in them. Nothing goes to China! We do not ship our equipment overseas for the purposes of recycling.

Why do you do this?

Computers affect us all. For those of us well versed in the digital arts, the computer can be a tool for good. But for those who do not have access to technology nor to a computer of their own, the digital world can be a complete abyss of terror and confusion. It may be cliche to speak about the digital divide, but there's really no other way to describe the gap between the digital haves and the compu-havenots. We must bridge the divide.

We serve the public by refurbishing used computer equipment for which businesses, corporations, and individual donors no longer have a use.

What about my old data?

When you donate your computer to us, you are also giving us any information that is on your hard drive, floppy disks, or CD's. It is not our policy to go traipsing around other people's hard drives looking for pictures of their penguins in burlap shorts, but we cannot be certain that your data will be safely hidden from prying eyes... unless you ask us to destroy your data at the time of recycling. Here are your options:

Do nothing
Doing nothing means that you do not care who sees your data. This allows us to simply reformat the drive and use it in a rebuilt computer.
Format the drive yourself
Formatting a hard drive is not perfect, but it is generally enough to ensure that most folks won't be able to read your old data. The disk will remain in working order and we will be able to format it a second time and use it in a rebuilt computer. However, formatting your hard drive might require you to consult with a geek for help.
If you want to format your drives, here are a couple tools that may be useful. WARNING! Use them at your own risk. If they work as advertised, (they do) they will irrevocably destroy your data. These are freeware data destruction applications for use on AMD/Intel/new Macs. They will not work on older macs or esoteric hardware.
DBAN Floppy Use this if your system boots from a floppy.
DBAN CD Use this if your system boots from CD.
Pay us to degauss your drive
We have a giant degausser. It is basically a metal box with massive electromagnets inside. When we turn it on, the magnets are switched on and off in a cyclical fashion, creating a magnetic field around the box that will destroy anything that uses magnetic memory. As such, using our degausser is the most effective and permanent way to remove your data from this mortal coil. We charge $10 per item degaussed. We cannot degauss a drive that is inside of a computer, so all drives must be removed from their cases first. We charge $10 per drive removal. It is perfectly all right for you to remove your drive yourself before you arrive. Degaussing a drive renders it useless. After we degauss your hard drive, we cannot use it in a rebuilt computer.