Shutting down for Winter

This year I'll be closing down operations over winter. My time is rather limited, and it's too cold working out in the garage taking apart computers. The last few boxes of circuit boards have been shipped off, and we should get the checks for their value soon. More thank you letters will still need to be made, and there will be a couple more donations made to other organizations.

Slowing Down for Winter

With colder weather coming, I'm going to be taking a break. My garage is not heated, and going through last winter was not any fun. I'll take a few more bits of electronics before it starts snowing, and will start up again in spring.

Bicycles

Last week, it was very sad to see three bicycles thrown away in a dumpster. With a little bit of effort these bicycles could have been recycled. I'm not sure what metal the frames were made of, but even steel is worth something. Plus, it's really unnecessary for these to take up space in a landfill. I would have taken these out, however there was something very disgusting smelling on top of them. It smelled very unsanitary. At times it is better to not risk one's health than to go after the recyclables.

Recycling for Ministry

Recycling for Food is going to help First Baptist Church in West Bend, Wisconsin dispose of their old computers. The computers they donate will be processed, and the cash value will be given back to them to help the missionaries they support. This is a bit different than our original plans, but we are still doing good work for others, and helping people in need. A lot of these missionaries scrape by every month on very little, and any support they can get will be beneficial.

Please be assured that the other donations we have received will be kept seperately, and continue to be used for our main mission.

Recent Load Shipped

We recently shipped off a load of electronic scrap to the place that processes them for us. However the result this time was very poor. For one box we received only $2.90 for it! It was a box that had 39 pounds of electronics in it. I suspect that it had to do with there being LCD displays (not screens) in it, but I am waiting to hear back from the processor about it. There was a lot of work put into dismantling this equipment, but with very little reward. We are hoping that the next bunch that will be shipped will have a greater return. It should be better because there are a lot of motherboards and ethernet cards that will be processed.

The Mission is Still "On"

While it looks like we have not had much activity lately, we are still operating and seeking donations. With our operations being part-time only, it has slowed down some of our progress. Feel free to contact us at any time, and be sure to add our e-mail addresses to your "safe" list to make sure our replies do not enter your spam folder.

Electronic Scrap

We are going to put more emphasis on the collection and recycling of electronic scrap. This area has worked out well for us, and we can be a great benefit for people who need to get rid of these items (e.g. old computers, phones, pda's, laptops, stereos, etc...). Regretfully, we cannot accept CRT TV's. We can accept everything in the TV's except the actual Cathode Ray Tube. For environmental reasons these would have to be recycled differently.

Government Grants

Starting in 2011, and moving forward, we will not seek government grants. We are firm in believing that the national debt of the United States is too high, and we do not want to contribute to this problem. If we can't be a part of the solution then at least we can do our best to not make the situation worse.

A New Year of Challenges

Looking back at 2010, we did not have as much success as we hoped for, however we will keep pushing to improve. We had very good success dealing with scrap electronics, and we will work more in this area to get items like circuit boards, computer parts, etc... recycled. An added challenge for this year will be running our organization on a part-time basis. There will be schedule conflicts, and regretfully Recycling for Food will have to take second place to full-time jobs. This may hurt our mission, but overall it is a necessary step in moving forward.