Recycling plan

This is a draft of a new or in-progress document, and is likely to have a few people specifically working on it. You may wish to check in on the discussion page to see what the purpose of the document is and who's working on it; then feel free to give this article love and attention if have extra of those things.

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Intro

How will Recycling change over the next 3-5 years so that Free Geek can better fulfill its mission and live up to its principles?

State of the program

Recycling is the place where all the equipment goes that we can't reuse. In Recycling this stuff gets taken apart and sorted into different commodities that then get send to vendors for further recycling. Recycling generates some income for Free Geek and provides a places for 24hour Adoption volunteers to work and learn.

Current and past issues

Past and current issues are related to vendor verification. We do our best to only use vendors that do the "right " thing, but without a complete audit of their practices it is almost impossible. The biggest issue has been and will be for the forseeable future is the proper recycling of toxic materials present in CRTs, and other items. One issue slowly creeping up on us is the recycling of LCD monitors and laptop screens(mercury bulbs). We also at times experience a shortage of recycling work, and have to make work for people(more current than past issue).

Trends and predictions

Upcoming trends that may affect the Recycling program include the possible change in donations because of the Ewaste legislation. Also, as new gadgets appear on the market, they will appear on our door step and we will need to find new ways of recycling these gadgets. These will include little gadgets with LCD screens, harder to take apart items(because of size), and unknown materials inside them. Recycling might take on a smaller role in the overall workings of Free Geek, and could turn into just packing and shipping of materials to vendors.

SWOT

Please define a goal for this SWOT

	Good (for Free Geek)	Bad (for Free Geek)
Internal (to Free Geek)	Strengths: Strengths are advantages we have that are internal to Free Geek and helpful to achieving the objective. (Good things we do.) constant stream of volunteers commitment to proper reuse and recycle	Weaknesses: Weaknesses are problems we have that are internal to Free Geek and harmful to achieving the objective. (Things we do poorly or not at all.) flow of stuff to recycling vendor verification
External (to Free Geek)	Opportunities: Opportunities are advantages we have that are external to Free Geek and helpful to achieving the objective. (Good things that will or could happen to us.) EWaste legislation might increase the stream of donation getting BAN certification, Blue Works certification, and through that showing our commitment to FG's mission	Threats: Threats are problems we have that are external to Free Geek and harmful to achieving the objective. (Bad things that will or could happen to us.) change in donation stream because of EWaste legislation difficulties in finding ways to recycle newer gadgets, change in vendors

See also Trends and Attributes | What do we want to do?