At 1 p.m. on a recent Thursday, a gray haze lingered over slick asphalt and three white tents stood alone in the Research Triangle Park parking lot, catching the pitter-patter as the skies sprinkled and clouds of mist rose above. Huddled underneath two of the tents, with tightly pulled hoods over red, numbed faces, two groups of volunteers chatted idly.
Fifty feet behind them a third matching tent covered the day’s treasures: three palettes of TVs, laptops, and iPads, waiting to be assessed and, hopefully, reused. By day’s end, the palettes would hold over 164 donated desktops, laptops, tablets, cellphones, monitors, and all-in-one computers in addition to over 250 pounds of miscellaneous items in flimsy, overflowing postal boxes.
“If I had to get a rough estimate, maybe 45% percent is reused,” noted Tom Walters, Kramden’s director of technical operations, hovering next to a steadily growing pile. “It depends on the age.”
Kramden Institute Inc., a nonprofit headquartered in Durham, takes e-waste donations and refurbishes the materials to give lower-income communities access to the latest usable technology. This fall’s drive brought in newer phones and laptops than usual, a welcome change for the company over 20 years after their first collection drive.
The donated equipment will be refurbished and either resold or donated: Kramden sells refurbished desktops and laptops to adults for $30 and $70 respectively, and gives away desktops to schoolchildren, using donations from every fall and spring drive.
The volunteers, their faces taut with the cold, held lively conversations as they waited for the next car to pull into the makeshift donation line, outlined with a couple dozen white traffic cones arranged in a wide U. Three middle-aged professionals stood patiently underneath a tent for Research Triangle Park employees, their yellow construction vests hanging over their Patagonia and Columbia jackets and their hands stuffed deep into coat pockets.
A small blue Toyota Outback with a black bike rack hanging off its back pulled up to their tent, the first stop in the donation line, its driver looking to drop off a trifecta of older Toshiba laptops. With furry, black earmuffs resting on the back of her head, Alison Fiori peered warmly into the driver’s side window, flashing a smile as she crouched down to the driver’s eye level. and reeled off a list of questions regarding their donation.
She asked about the type of donation, condition, and purpose of the drop off, a series of questions she would repeat many times throughout the day. Some donors looked only to get rid of their closet and basement clutter; for others, it was an opportunity to get a tax deduction for some very early spring cleaning.
Regardless of the reason, donors were ushered along the outlined path to two tents on their right, where four Kramden technicians stood dressed in jeans and soaked-through hoodies. Undeterred by rain, the employees steadily unpacked the trunks of cars of all kinds: a blue Tesla Model X with an open trunk, which departed hastily after donating two nondescript cardboard boxes carrying TVs; a Kia Sorento whose driver was (somehow) unsure of where to drop off a donation; and a full-time dad’s white Kia Soul — complete with Squishmallow headrests — dropping off older, kid-oriented tablets.
One of the last arrivals was a blue Chevy Silverado. Its driver, James Small, cruised through the gray drizzle with his driver-side window down and a smoldering Black and Mild cigar hanging from his lips. His pickup bed was filled with old TVs from the hotel where he works.
“It’s good to have somewhere to drop this stuff off,” he said gruffly, sinking into his cushioned driver’s seat as he watched the bed of his pickup truck, reflected in his driver-side mirror.
As the Kramden technicians fished out three large boxes containing used TVs, they piled them amongst the remaining palettes of desktop units, monitors, tablets, and laptops. Slowly, the technicians paced around the palettes, wrapping the donations in Saran wrap as they prepared to ship the electronics off to their new purpose.
Pictured above: Tom Walters wheels donated laptops, tablets and chargers onto an 18-wheeler during a recent e-waste recycling event. The event collected more than 164 donated devices — plus 250 pounds of miscellaneous stuff. Photos by Niles Luke — The 9th Street Journal
