Dumpster diving + computer = 100 trees

Jude Ndambuki teaches high school chemistry, but when he's not in class, you might find him Dumpster diving for discarded computers.

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been refurbishing computers, printers and other electronic educational resources otherwise headed for landfills, then sending them to grateful students back home.

"The children in Kenya have very few resources; even a pencil is very hard to get," said Ndambuki, 51, who lives in the New York City suburb of Dobbs Ferry. "Being one of the kids who actually experienced very dire poverty in Kenya, I feel any part that I can play to make the life of kids better, I better do it."

In lieu of compensation for the considerable time, expertise and expenses he devotes to his Help Kenya Project, Ndambuki asks that recipients plant 100 trees for every computer they receive. By connecting computer recycling, educational development and environmental conservation, he hopes to encourage a greener, more prosperous future for his country.

The Help Kenya Project has provided more than 2,000 refurbished computers to Kenya's schools and planted more than 150,000 trees.

This story warmed my heart. It makes me really proud to be alive. I know it wasn't me doing it, but heck, I'm a human and this guy is too.

He's helping Kenya by supplying usable computers and helping the rest of us by getting trees planted.

It was nice to read something positive for a change.

That is pretty kewl. Hopefully he doesn't get caught.

I live in a town with a University. At the end of every Term it is amazing how many laptops are discarded into the dumpsters by students heading back home. They also like to throw away their Plasma Televisions, Blu-Ray DVD Players, and any other electronic device bigger than an MP3 Player or Cellphone. It must be nice to have rich parents that can afford buying you these things every Term.

So, of course, at the end of every Term, the less fortunate students and citizens of our town go dumpster diving at the University. It is a Misdemeanor if you get caught empty-handed. Depending on what you get caught with in-hand, it can be Felony Theft if the value of the items exceeds $5000!

How did we become such a wasteful society? Isn't removing these items from the dumpsters doing a Community Service by preventing the lead, mercury, and other toxic trace metals and chemicals in these electronics from making it into landfills and our water supplies?

To think that someone has devoted their life to dumpster diving for electronics, contributing to our own environment, and then donating them to lesser fortunate countries in exchange for them helping their environment, is a wonderful thing!

S&F

I used to dumpster dive behind a Blockbuster video back in the early 90's. At one time I had a collection of about 4,000 VHS tapes, haha. after the hype of a new release dies down, they used to throw away the extra copies they no longer needed. then they realized they could sell them for pennies on the dollar and atleast retain a small proffit, so they stopped.

that being said, we have to make sure no one finds out about this so they keep being dumb and throwing away computers for this dude.

[edit on 14-8-2009 by drsmooth23]

Yea Americans have no idea what real poverty is. And they only need to witness these situations to really understand what a REAL problem is about.

At Boeing they have dumpsters full of electronics.

They also have cameras pointed at these dumpsters.

reply to post by fraterormus


Good grief! I should have gone dumpster diving at my university! I had no idea people were that stupid, and I have a pretty darned low opinion of the average person already. A lot of the students there were that type, too, where uber rich parents handed them everything, so maybe some of them were stupid enough to chuck all their nice stuff at end of term.

I had no idea dumpster diving was illegal, so maybe it isn't where I live. I should look into this...

reply to post by DragonsDemesne


One of the biggest landfill problems is technology being thrown away instead of being recycled.

It has become such a huge problem that is it even taking up more space then diapers!

But diapers don't have toxic metals leaking into the water system.

Yeah, I knew that discarded electronics has been a serious waste issue for awhile. I was expressing surprise at the fact that people would throw away expensive *working* electronics. I mean geez, if someone has a new laptop or plasma TV they're throwing away, I'll take it instead :p

There are a couple of business that have sprung up locally that specialize in recycling electronics. Everything is dismantled and sold for scrap or... if still working and of value, sold on Ebay. It's amazing how much of the stuff is out there being discarded. The only items they charge to dispose of are the CRT based monitors and televisions. The smaller of the 2 local places fills a 20 yard dumpster with scrap metal (computer cases mostly) 2 to three times a week. They make enough money to pay rent and utilities on a 10,000 sq ft building and employ 6 workers in the process. If you are thiking of starting a business like this in your area, you will need a forklift, palets, big heavy duty boxes (palet sized), several work tables, large scales (palet sized), heavy duty cordless screwdrivers, large wire cutters, and other assorted tools.

Green up !

Steve

As a lover of gizmos I have to say that this is appalling!!!!! These kids ever heard of EBAY????? The classifieds!?! I mean holy $(*& WTF IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE! Their stuffz deserve a home! Even 10 years ago this stuff would be a marvel of technology! Throwing away laptops? Dvd player? Blue Ray Players?!?!?!?!?! That work!?!?!?!? Wasteful ungrateful brats!

This in itself should be illegal!