E-Waste Day

My Macintosh Plus

It was E-Waste day at the University of Hawaii today. This day was set aside by the U.H., the State Department of Education and Apple Computer. The public had a chance to get rid of their e-waste and not worry about sending it off to the landfill. Supposedly the e-waste collected will be shipped off to the mainland or somewhere, and have their components recycled.

It was a good opportunity for me to get rid of some of my household clutter. Among the items that I finally got around to letting go were the following:

• Macintosh II computer - I got this a few years ago for free, used it very minimally. Removed the hard drive before I let it go.
• Macintosh Centris 650 - After the internal CD ROM drive died, this became a problem child and project computer that I never finished. Today I decided to let it go. Took out the hard drive before this former Quadra went. It was a good computer that ran System 7.5.3. Spent a lot of time playing Sim City II on it. The main reason why these 2 old 680x0 Macs were let go is that I have no monitors for them now. The last Apple monitor I had died last year and I let that go at the last Comp USA recycling drive.
• Sony Betmax VCR - I bought this for $300 back in 1984; used it for 10 years until a belt broke. It sat in storage ever since and today was the day for it to go. Beta you were better! Aloha.
• Yamanaha DVD player - This thing was an el cheapo that I only bought 3 years ago, and it died after 2 years. Hardly got any use from it; $70 invested and lost on this guy.
• Sony CD Player - My last single play, CD only component died last year. Had it since 1991. Today it went.
• Assorted other stuff - older syquest cartridge drives, modems, wires, a FRED unit, and other stuff also went.

Now I have more room. Next I need to get rid of some of my old books and perhaps my "newer" old computers such as my Powercenter 150 and Power Mac 9500. I also have perfectly fine Mac SE and Mac Plus computers lying around. Anyone interested in buying these? I may sell them for a song. Email me.

And now the political spin: There is talk that some people would like to see a computer recycling tax be levied upon the consumers of Hawaii for every computer or TV they purchase. This is a bad, bad idea. Hawaii already has one of the highest tax burdens in the nation. We are already being taxed for way too many consumer transactions. The general excise tax is going to rise on January 1. Do we need a computer tax or as proponents would like to refer to it, a "computer recycling fee"? No!

Volunteer and corporate efforts such as today's E-Waste day are great ideas and should be implemented more often. A mandatory new tax is not. It will only add to the cost of living and doing business in Hawaii.