[Noisebridge-discuss] E-Waste / Donations discussion

[Trent Robbins]

I would add that we currently have a sort of amorphous hack shelf, but it
really has three parts.
1. Computer Parts (front side)
2. Cable/Wire Rack
3. The side facing the old server closet (which has no theme, but is
currently somewhat organized.)

I think a solid first step we could go for is categorizing donations. If we
have some information about what we have then that will go a long way
towards more effective storage, utilization, and eventual e-waste maneuvers.

 It would probably take 2-3 people a day to inventory the thing.

There has been discussion about avoiding donations of certain types. I
think we need more data before we can make this sort of determination.

It's really hard to determine what people will need from the hack shelves.
For example, it is definitely excellent to let people have extra
peripherals if we have them in the space, it might not be our core mission
to Store those extra peripherals for people (just thinking of a recent
scenario).

Some data points:
July 2014 Noisebridge got rid of 6 tons of e-waste.
Oct 2015, Noisebridge reduced the hacker shelves by roughly 50%

A lot of people used their own metrics to determine what was waste. For
example, various bohemian boards, surplus cables, metal cases, known
non-working LCD screens, and similar items were discarded.



On Thu, Oct 29, 2015 at 1:18 PM, Rubin Abdi <rubin at starset.net> wrote:

> It would be great if folks involved with the refresh weekend to please
> chime in. Thanks.
>
> On 27 October 2015 at 13:37, Zach R <organicunity at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hey all,
>>   So there was some tension in the space today regarding some hardware
>> donations I brought over.  After talking to some people I learned that
>> there was an E-Waste cleanup effort recently, and that some members donated
>> their time to haul stuff away.  I would like to take the opportunity to
>> open this topic up for discussion among the community.
>>
>> I was told tonight that E-Waste has been a problem at NB, and this was
>> news to me.  I was also told the regular collector of E-Waste (the phone
>> number on the E-Waste bin by the elevator) does not do pickups anymore.
>> This also surprised me because he did a pickup earlier this summer when I
>> called him... Well, I called him again tonight and he is says he is
>> completely okay picking up E-waste.  I scheduled a time with him for
>> Wednesday afternoon and I will take it upon myself to meetup with him and
>> update via the list what is going on there.  He seemed more than happy to
>> haul stuff away when I talked with him tonight.
>>
>> I would come to the meeting tomorrow night to talk about this more if I
>> didn't have a prior engagement.  Tuesday nights are usually my busiest of
>> the week.  But I would like to ask these questions to the community:
>>
>> 1) How much donations should we allow in the space?  What are the items
>> we don't want and who should we turn away?
>> 2) How should E-waste coordination for pickups happen?  (I am willing to
>> take on a role in this)  What is a "Plan B" if regular E-waste people are
>> unavailable?
>> 3) How often should E-waste get picked up?
>> 4) How should the hackershelves be organized to facilitate keeping the
>> space clutter-free? Who decides what will stay and what goes?
>>
>> In regards to the last one, there are a bunch of vintage oscilloscopes on
>> the hackershelves now.  There is also a very large printer on the top, and
>> other items I would personally vote to remove.
>>
>>     I think communicating about these questions with as many people as we
>> can will make sure there is enough input on this.  I would hate to see NB
>> become a place that refuses donations and is hardware anemic.  We do not
>> receive anywhere near the donations we used to back in say, 2012 and
>> earlier.  I am able to bring some quality stuff into the space (I brought
>> in 5 laptops last week that were all gone without a couple days) and I
>> would like to continue supporting NB this way.
>>     One of my favorite things to do for the community is to provide
>> hardware, and it is also immensely helpful for my classes.  There are
>> countless people that have benefited from the donations we receive and the
>> hackershelves and donations have proved to be incredible valuable to many,
>> many noisebridge people in positive ways.  Let's find a way to keep this
>> sustainable and working for everyone.
>>
>> Best,
>> Zach
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
>> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
>> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Rubin
> rubin at starset.net
>
> _______________________________________________
> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.noisebridge.net/pipermail/noisebridge-discuss/attachments/20151029/49725965/attachment-0003.html>