Computers are very much like people. They run, play music, analyze data, communicate, grow old and die—they have a life, literally and figuratively.
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Heather Randol, environmental health and safety manager, examines surplus electronics.
At Portland State every effort is made to give computers the healthiest and longest-lasting lives possible, according to PSU’s Facilities and Property Management department. From the moment a need is conceived in the minds of departmental administrators until the final send-off at the shipping dock, units are logged, tracked and maintained for maximum efficiency.
Throughout its life, a computer will get handed down within individual departments or given to Surplus Property, a division of PSU’s Mail, Shipping and Receiving Services. Surplus may in turn send it to another department that can use it. This process is called “repurposing.”
Daniel Pearson, a graduate student and assistant in the history department, makes use of a repurposed computer and printer in the department’s office space. He has worked previously for the government in information technology roles.
“Reusing programs give access to more technological resources that they wouldn’t have because of budget concerns,” he said.
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Farhad Khoshnahad, surplus supervisor, inspects electronics that come through Surplus. He decides whether the old parts will be kept, sold or recycled.
Jeff Mora, equipment and systems specialist with PSU Transportation and Parking Services, gives an example.
Every year TAPS looks at its budget and decides if the department needs and can afford a new computer. If they have a need and the means, new units typically go to someone at the management level. The manager’s previous computer will then go to the support staff. Any support staff computers displaced by new units will likely end up in one of the parking garage kiosks.
“We try to get as much use out of a computer or electronic as we can,” Mora said.
TAPS keeps an extensive inventory of electronics. Mora explained that when an item is no longer of use to the department it is deleted from the inventory and handed over to Surplus Property.
When a department is ready to dispose of computers or other electronic devices, coordinating with Surplus is as easy as filling out a work order.
“Surplus picks up free and delivers free,” Farhad Khoshnahad, surplus supervisor, said.
Khoshnahad is in charge of deciding the ultimate fate of computers that come through Surplus. He has three basic options: keep, sell or dispose. In all cases hard drives are wiped clean by the Office of Information Technology to ensure sensitive data doesn’t end up where it shouldn’t.
Keeping a computer means repurposing it. A unit might be obsolete for one department’s needs but not for another. If Khoshnahad knows that a department is looking for something particular, he’ll contact them when he receives the specific item.
Selling a computer means putting it up for auction on eBay or selling at the school’s own surplus property sale site. If a computer is of no use anywhere in the university but is still in working condition it is put up for bid and priced to sell.
Khoshnahad explained that Surplus Property takes a marginal percentage of the proceeds for their efforts, but most of the money goes back to the department where the unit originated.
Disposing of a computer means recycling it. Electronics recycling at PSU is handled through the Environmental Health and Safety Department.
Since 2010 it has been illegal in Oregon to throw into landfills what are called “covered electronic devices,” meaning computers, monitors and televisions. This regulation helps dictate, but not limit, how PSU disposes of electronics.
“PSU collects and recycles many additional types of electronic waste, including everything from peripherals like [mouses] and keyboards to electronic research equipment,” EHS Manager Heather Randol said in an email.
On site, where a few pallets of old, bulky monitors were awaiting pickup for recycling, Randol explained some details about the program she oversees.
PSU disposes of electronics through the nonprofit recycler Garten Services, based out of Salem. The school pays Garten a minimal fee to collect and recycle 60,000 pounds of electronic waste per year.
Randol expects this number to decrease in the years to come, not because fewer items are being recycled, but because items such as newer monitors are slimmer and lighter in design.
Once in Salem, Garten puts computers through a demanufacturing program that gives jobs to adults with disabilities. Many items less than three years old are refurbished or have their parts reused, according to Garten’s website.
As part of the Oregon E-Cycles program, all electronics disposed at the recycler are guaranteed to stay out of landfills anywhere in the world.
Currently, there aren’t any major e-recycling collection programs on campus to specifically combat improper disposal of battery waste and students’ personal electronics. Randol hopes this will change and said EHS is looking into possibilities. She did note that EHS will take care of items left behind in dorms when students move out.
“They shouldn’t just be throwing a laptop in a garbage can when it’s worn out,” Randol said.