On Saturday, January 9th, from 8 a.m. – noon, the Downtown San Mateo Association and Goodwill Industries of San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin Counties will host an e-waste drive at the downtown San Mateo Caltrain station. In an effort to provide Downtown San Mateo with “all the ingredients” for a progressive, eco-friendly community, the DSMA designed an event that will bring a free service to individuals and corporations that want to donate old computers while also helping to build educational and job opportunities.
“In the state of California, you aren’t legally allowed to just throw your computer out with your weekly trash pick up,” said Arnab Pal, business engagement specialist for the San Mateo County Goodwill. “You have to go through an e-waste recycling program.”
There are many incentives for recycling computers and other e-waste through Goodwill. Besides the tax write off benefit, Goodwill makes sure that donated computers are not illegally exported or end up in landfill. All the computer’s hard drives that are refurbished are wiped to the standards of the Department of Defense. Each year, through its refurbishing and recycling program, the non-profit diverts over 2 million pounds of computers, televisions and other electronics from ending up in landfills.
One of the most unique factors about the Goodwill’s e-waste recycling program is it funds Goodwill’s certified computer training programs, which creates opportunities for job training and placement for people overcoming barriers to employment.
“In the IT technician training program, people are placed as interns within Goodwill’s organization and they learn how to refurbish computers and that becomes their primary job,” said Pal. “At a time when many people are struggling with unemployment, we are thrilled to be creating green collar jobs within the local community. Plus, everyone who graduates one of the training programs gets a refurbished computer, setting the stage for their occupational success.”
Goodwill also boasts a highly involved recycling and training center, ReCompute, located in Redwood City. ReCompute recently obtained a portion of the funds from the California Green Jobs Corps, which awarded $936,429 in grants to San Mateo County. The California Green Jobs Corps opportunities offer 1,500 at-risk youth, aged 16-24, career training in energy/utilities efficiency and sustainability, green construction, green waste, agricultural and natural resources, solar power and alternative automotive fuel.
The e-waste recycling event is just another one of the green and sustainable efforts coming from the Downtown San Mateo Association. At the annual Wine Walk last June, the DSMA and the city of San Mateo reached their goal of producing zero waste at the event and are envisioning more cutting edge environmental outreach programs for 2010.
“We are proud that San Mateo County is leading the way in green initiatives here in the Bay Area,” said Kelly Mitter, Executive Director of the Downtown San Mateo Association. “In December, the Loma Prieta chapter of the Sierra Club released a report that ranked the city of San Mateo ahead of others in completing the 21 climate action ‘milestones’. We are one of the greenest cities on the Peninsula.”
WHO: Downtown San Mateo Association and Goodwill Industries of San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin Counties
WHAT: Free e-waste computer and electronics recycling event
WHERE: Downtown San Mateo Caltrain Station, 385 First Avenue, San Mateo CA, 94401
WHEN: Saturday, January 9th from 8 am – 12 Noon
INFO: Call 650-342-5520, email events@dsma.org or visit http://www.dsma.org/
PRESS: Contact Liz Stigge at 650-548-6700 or email lstigge@prmagic.com
The Downtown San Mateo Association has “All the Ingredients” to promote downtown businesses and to assist in building a responsible and sustainable community
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