“The response in the USA was very positive,” Robin Ingenthron, a WR3A founder, says. “People like the idea of reforming computer exports. But the response overseas is explosive.”
In the first month, WR3A got purchase orders for 130,000 used, non-working but repairable computer monitors. An additional 20,000 working monitors have been requested.
In a release, WR3A says that developing countries cannot keep up with demand for affordable computers (and monitor/TV/DVD combos, which some turn the monitors into during refurbishment) without buying from large wholesalers, some of whom don’t have any recycling capacity for junk tubes, which contain 8 pounds of lead.
This month, students with the recycling program at the University of California – Davis are translating the organization’s Web site www.wr3a.org into Chinese. Lin King, director of UC Davis recycling program, is VP and co-founder of the WR3A, and has become the point person to interview purchasers from China, the source of the highest demand.
WR3A expects even more requests for working and quality repairable equipment.
“What we need now are more USA members, generators and recyclers who can document they can supply the proper TVs and monitors,” King says. “If we don’t respond to this demand, companies overseas will have to go back to their old sources, which gives recycling a bad name.”
Ingenthron adds, “If you have working and repairable monitors, and are paying to have the junk ones recycled domestically, this association is for you.”