Archive
Hurricane Sandy!
It takes a lot to close the Mac Recycle Clinic but a major weather event is right up there! So we’ll be closed on Monday, October 29 and hope to see everyone in November. Please be safe!
Hurricane Sandy bears down on the East Coast of the United States.
Even computer recycling efforts have to take a back step to safety.
Why We Recycle: A Personal Story
Jessica Snow receives her refurbished MacBook during the MRC's Monday Night Clinic.
MacRecycleClinic is a small group – with a collective big heart. We are all volunteers but like many who care, we put a lot of time and effort into what we do. We care about the environment and want to play a part – admittedly a small one – to help folks continue to get good service out of computers that others no longer want or need.
The fact that we only work with Macintosh computers is a benefit of the job. We’re also passionate about Apple products and from long experience, we know they will provide years of good service with just a little loving care.
So when Jessica Snow – a college student who cares deeply about the environment – came to us, we were happy to work with her. Jessica – a former blogger for the Examiner newspapers – needed something portable and easy to care for. A MacBook was the answer.
UConn vs. Butler: The Recycling Final Two
Update: Congratulations to the Huskies for winning their third national championship tonight (Monday, April 4) over Butler.
UConn and Butler are in the men’s NCAA National Championship game Monday night. Both are excellent basketball teams. But how do those schools match up where recycling is concerned? The University of Connecticut is a large school located in Storrs, Connecticut – closer to Boston than New York. Butler is what’s called a “mid-major” – a small school located just outside Indianapolis, Indiana.
We Get Questions About Mac Recycle Clinic
RecycleMac has been getting some positive feedback so thanks to all of our readers out there. This is really a long-term project that tries to build a quality voice in a room filled with many folks who are passionate about the environment and recycling. We’ll keep working at it with your help!
So here are the questions:
What’s different about recycling Macs than other computers?
A Mac is a PC – that is, it is a personal computer or a personal appliance or a personal electronic gadget. So essentially you would recycle it the same way you might any other computer. All the folks we’ve talked about – from Apple to Dell – will take your computer and many times other electronic equipment and recycle them.Unfortunately, Apple has taken some heat in past years because its computers were not made of materials that were easy to recycle or were toxic. To its credit, Apple has made some major changes and is much greener these days. I won’t go into depth here but you can read all about it on their website. If you’re interested, you can also see what Greenpeace says these days – it has an entire website devoted to the issue.
Please know that the Macs that are donated to us are thoroughly checked and cleaned. Hard drives are securely wiped of all data and an appropriate version of the Mac OS is installed. If the machine can not be made to work (and we get some that just don’t want to work no matter what we do) we will take out any reusable parts – hard drives, memory, batteries, sometimes the power supplies and optical drives – and send the hulk to Montgomery County’s Processing Facility and Transfer Station in Derwood (Gaithersburg), Maryland – which is the closest county recycling center to us. Here’s a map:
MacRecycleClinic Photos
iFixit Blog
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