EPC’s Computer Recyling Blog

Recycle Your Computer AND Feed the Hungry!

In celebration of Earth Day, EPC will be donating all public recycling fees to a local food bank. There is a $5 per item charge for EPC to recycle your old computers and electronics. But from April 18th – 26th, EPC will be donating those fees to a local food bank. Additionally, individuals can donate 5 canned good items and EPC will waive the $5 fee, and include those canned goods in the donation. Bring in those old electronic items you’ve been meaning to get rid of and take this opportunity to help the environment and the community.

Tags: canned good drive, Computer Recycling, earth day, Electronics Recycling, environment, food bank donation, food drive, public recycling, recycling

Redbirds Go Green – Cardinals add Recycling to their Lineup

The grass in Busch Stadium isn’t the only thing green this baseball season. Now in its second season, the St. Louis Cardinals’ “For a Greener Game” campaign continues to recycle the trash that fans leave behind in the stands. Last season, stadium employees collected and recycled 220 tons of cardboard, paper, aluminum and plastic that, in past seasons, would’ve ended up in a landfill.

In a further effort to contribute to the local community, the “For a Greener Game” initiative has joined with the St. Patrick Center in order to help homeless St. Louisans find meaningful and gainful employment.

In addition to the season-long recycling efforts, there are a couple of games that are specifically dedicated to going green. Those games are on Earth Day, 4/22 and World Environment Day, 6/5, and include discounted tickets, an environmental expo and a “For a Greener Game” organic tee shirt.
Go Redbirds! Go Green!

Tags: baseball, busch stadium, cardinals, earth day, Environmental, for a greener game, green, landfill, recycling, redbirds, St. Louis, st. patrick center, world environment day

Build an under-the-cabinet kitchen PC

Lifehacker is on a laptop recycling kick recently. Last week they showed us how to make a digital photo frame out of your old laptop. This week it is building your own under-the cabinet kitchen PC. Fashioned out of an old dell laptop, some coat hangers, and Puppy Linux, this DIY project looks like it would work great for checking the weather, listening to some internet radio, or looking up some recipies online. Man, what I wouldn’t give for a touch screen interface and software keyboard though.

If you are looking for more ideas on what do to with your old computer, check out these posts:

• 10 Things to Do With an Old Computer
• Give an old laptop new life with cheap (or free) projects – Lifehacker

Tags: kitchen, laptop, recycling

EPC to Provide Electronics Recycling Education at St. Louis Earth Day

One of the oldest Earth Day celebrations in the Midwest, the 2009 St. Louis Earth Day Festival, is being held in Forest Park on 4/26 from 11am-6pm.  As the area’s leading recycler of electronics, EPC has been asked to educate the more than 25,000 festival participants about electronics recycling. Stop by  our educational booth at this year’s festival and learn why and how we recycle electronics.  Our environmental efforts have earned EPC the St. Louis Business Journal’s 2008 Heroes of the Planet Award. If you can’t make it to the festival, you can check out our website for more information on how you can help EPC in our efforts to prevent electronics and their hazardous parts from ending up in landfills.

Tags: Earth Day Festival, Electronics Recycling, Environmental, recycling, St. Louis

Ten Things To Do With an Old Computer

Just because you purchased a new computer and your old one will not run Vista or the latest games doesn’t mean you should throw it away. There are a lot of projects you can do with an older computer.

Note: Many of the examples include video how-to’s from the great tech DIY podcast Systm hosted by Revision3. If tech is your thing, Revision3 probably has a podcast for it.

1. Turn it into a file server

Have a large collection of digital photos or music files? Have multiple computers and want to have the same files available to all of them? With just a few minutes time, you can turn that old computer into network attached storage (NAS) using FreeNAS. The only gotcha: hard drive space can be limited in older computers, so to really make use of this tip, you will want to invest in a larger hard drive.
More »

Tags: Computers, linux, lists, mythtv, old computer, recycling

English Trashmen equipped with Computers, GPS

From the Across the Pond department: Waste collection crews in England are being equiped with computers and GPS in order to build “rubbish profiles” on residents. These computers will feed crewmembers up-to-the-minute information on the houses they are servicing.

In addition, information will be collected and provided to local authorities so they can issue recycling advice, or fines for residents that fail to obey recycling rules.

These processes are part of a government strategy to increase recycling to 40% of trash collected by 2010, and 50% by 2020.

While I’m in favor of increased recycling, the very idea of automatic fines seems like something out of science fiction movies like “Demolition Man” or “The Fifth Element”.

Tags: Computers, england, gps, recycling