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if it’s made in china, then it should go back – right? apparently, the EPA believes this. our trash (computers, radios, tv’s, and lots of techno trash) is being exported to Asia.

where else can it go? what else can we do with it? an organization in NYC, Per Scholas offers one solution – if it works, donate it. they take CRT monitors, which are one of the main landfill culprits.

LINKS:
video from hugg.com
background info from greenpeace

so i began looking at a junk shelf in ITP.
there was a big pile of stuff – some useful, some not.
I began thinking to myself, “How can people find what they’re looking for and avoid all the junk and mess?”

Most of the things were piled on top of each other and hard to get to.
There were also many cases that were interfering or getting in the way.

Once I moved things, I began seeing that the plastic parts, cases, and enclosures were only “useless” because they were in the way of what I was looking for – motors and electronic.
I put the plastic cases on a different level of the shelf and I believe that these cases will now be seen as useful.

I also began thinking about how to categorize miscellany.
Perhaps I could categorize things on the level of usability (or destruction) – like a Health-o-meter

Here’s a basic inventory:
VCR, phones, printer, copier, DVD player, Speakers, fan, motors, wires, small parts, phone jacks, remote conrols, sensors, Intel Anypoint, answering machine, motherboards, speakers, misc.

Here’s a categorical inventory:
Wires – stripped v. Not Stripped
Hacked v. Not hacked
Soft Goods v. Hard Materials
Moving Parts (motors, gears, fans, wheels)
Electrical parts (capacitors, resistors, stripped wire)
Sensors (IR, foot switch)
Plastic Cases – ripped apart v. intact