“Help Save the Environment To save The World”

“Hello”

I’m Neil A Social Entrepreneur and looking for practical-hands-on-help & Support to Co-Manage an environmental Devon based Initiative to create a 100% Zero Waste tolerance for SME’s & PLC’s plus in the Southwest of England.

A1 PRP are an environmental community project in Exeter, Devon aiming to help all Business People in Devon to get practically involved, A1 are currently looking for people who have either been made redundant or who are semi retired and ex-professionals who are based in Exeter, Devon.

A1 are looking for people who would like to get-practically involved & help make a positive change people who can help with managing and running a Social Enterprise the 1st of it’s kind in the UK who aim to set up an alternative technology/education center for the Southwest of England.

The objects of the company shall be to establish a funding stream through the refurbishment of working IT equipment, sale and collection, sorting, returning of ink, toner cartridges to be re-manufactured, the reuse, refurbishment of working mobile phones to fund the establishment of an alternative technology/education center for adults with learning problems and to educate, empower and fund other not-for-profit Social Enterprises with primarily Social objectives for the community of which they serve, promoting ‘Positive Change Through Social Enterprise.’. To find out more Call: (01392) 202779, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

What are the limits?
Answer
General
We are unfortunately unable to accept any equipment that is not complete and in working order. This will be explained further in the entries for each equipment type. Also, due to reliability and specification concerns, all IT equipment recycled at A1 Positive Recycling Project should be five years old or less.

Computers
All computers; desktop, tower PCs and laptops- must be less than five years old. This means they should be Pentium 4s or better. Laptops must be supplied complete with power leads and working adapters. We are unable to accept broken or incomplete equipment- PCs must have working RAM and hard drives.

Monitors
Monitors must be in full working order. While flat screen monitors of any size can be accepted, we cannot accept CRT monitors larger than 17” in size because larger CRT monitors are very bulky and take up a lot of space on our containers. In addition, because monitors often have a limited useful life we cannot accept monitors more than 5 years old.

Printers and Scanners
Printers must be inkjet or laser printers in full working order with spare cartridges and all the data leads, power leads and so on that are needed to use them. Scanners must likewise be in full working order and come complete with data and power leads.

Other Peripherals
Mice, keyboards, PC power leads (“Kettle leads”) and other PC peripherals are also gratefully accepted. All peripheral items should be in good working order and preferably also reasonably clean. Mice and keyboards MUST have PS/2 or USB connector ports or we cannot use them and kettle leads must be in working order with working fuses installed.

Other Items
If you have any questions about other items, please just give us a call and ask. We’re open during normal office hours- 9 AM to 5 PM weekdays- and there should be someone available who can answer your query. If not, please email us at a1prp@ymail.com and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

Frequently Asked Questions How can I tell if my equipment meets A1’s minimum specifications?
Answer
It’s usually easy enough to tell whether your equipment is working or not- but a lot of the other requirements can be harder to figure out, especially when it comes to processor speed and so on. Again, I’ll break this answer up into paragraphs to make it easier for you to find the information you need.

Computers
There are ways to tell what processor a computer is using through software, but most of them require enough computer knowledge that any of the further advice I could give here would be redundant. I’ll stick to the relatively simple stuff, then:
Most computers use Intel processor chips. These will either be Pentium or Celeron, and you may well notice a sticker on the front or side of your PC that says “Intel inside” with the name of the processor running underneath. If you’re fortunate enough to have one of these stickers, then it’s usually fairly easy to tell whether your computer is up to our minimum spec.
If the sticker says “Pentium” without a number, “Pentium II” or “Pentium III” then unfortunately we won’t be able to accept it as it will almost certainly be below our minimum requirement. However, if the sticker says “Pentium 4” or even “Core 2” then that’s great- it would be fantastic for use to recycle at A1 and we would love to receive it from you.
If the sticker says “Celeron” then it gets a little more difficult. If the computer has a “Celeron” or other sticker, or if it has no sticker on the front indicating what processor it has at all, then your best reference is the age of the machine. If the computer is five years old or less then it will meet our minimum specification.
If you don’t know how old the computer is, you can often (but unfortunately not always) find a date of manufacture on the rear of the machine with the bar codes.
If you don’t know how old the computer is, the next indicator to use is what operating system the computer uses. This is usually very simple, as most operating systems will display their name clearly on the screen when the computer is switched on. If the computer is running Windows XP or Windows Vista, then it will probably be up to our minimum spec. Some computers running Windows 2000 will also be acceptable. If the computer is not running one of these operating systems then unfortunately it is going to be very difficult to tell whether the computer is up to our minimum spec or not.

Monitors
The most difficult part of checking a monitor is making sure that it doesn’t have any serious visual defects. The simplest way to do this is by switching it on and looking at video and still images with it. Some monitors have a “Degauss” button or menu option (in the case of newer monitors) that you can use which may help to eliminate some discolouration or image distortion. If you’ve tried this, and there is still a noticeable “flicker”, the colours don’t display properly or there is a dark “shadow” on the screen where there shouldn’t be, then there is probably something wrong with the monitor and it will need to be recycled.

If the monitor is working, it may still be below spec: CRT monitors all degrade slowly over time, especially when they are used on too high a brightness setting: One of the indicators of this is when “shadows” begin to appear, but the whole monitor will steadily become darker and duller throughout its life. For this reason, we cannot accept CRT monitors (traditional, bulky monitors) that are more than five years old. Unfortunately, there are fewer indicators of age on a monitor than on a base unit, but fortunately most monitors have the date-or at least the year- of their manufacture printed on the back, along with the serial number, manufacturer and model number.
Beyond that, you can try reading the model number and manufacturer and searching for them online to see if you can find out when that model was made, but unfortunately this can be quite difficult and often the only solution you have will be to look at the condition of the monitor, check the screen for defects and make as educated a guess as you can. Please be aware, though, that we do not usually accept monitors on their own (without accompanying desktop or tower PCs).

Printers and Scanners
Honestly, we have a lot of trouble with printers and scanners because they can be difficult to test and are often awkwardly shaped. In extreme cases, inkjet printers in particular have been known to leak during transit and cover other equipment in ink. If there is any doubt at all over whether a printer or scanner would be considered suitable- remember that the spec is for working scanners and inkjet or laser printers less than five years old together with any and all power leads, data leads etc that are needed to make them run- we would probably be unable to accept them.
This may sound like a harsh policy, but we are offered far more printers than we can usefully use and we absolutely wish to avoid recycling anything that is just going to be no good to recycle is rudimentary at best and can often be hazardous to people and the environment.

Other Peripherals
Mice and keyboards can be checked by connecting them up and seeing if they work: PS/2 mice and keyboards will need to be connected while the computer is switched off, but USB items can be plugged in and removed while the computer is on. The harder part of this to explain is the difference between the four connector types- Serial, DIN, PS/2 and USB.
The serial port, usually used for mice, is wide and flat with two rows of pins in it: The plug on the mouse should have corresponding pinholes where the connecting pins from the computer go into it. A DIN port, usually used for a keyboard, is large, bulky and circular: It has a semi-circular row of five large round pinholes around part of its circumference. The plug attached to the keyboard will have a corresponding row of large round pins surrounded by a circular metal sheath which also plugs into the computer. Items with connector plugs of either type are unfortunately below minimum spec, and we will be unable to accept them.
PS/2 connectors are used for mice as well as keyboards, though on more recent PS/2 devices the PS/2 plug on the mouse is coloured green while the corresponding plug on the keyboard is coloured purple. PS/2 plugs are round and surrounded by a circular metal sheath, but they are distinguishable from standard DIN ports for several reasons: Firstly they are much smaller than DIN connectors. DIN connectors are over a centimetre in diameter, while PS/2 ports are considerably smaller. Secondly, a PS/2 connector has six very thin pins and a small plastic block inside the circular protector, where a DIN connector has five much larger pins and no block.

Suggestion: There are plenty of pictures available of PS/2, USB, Serial and DIN ports and plugs. Maybe we could use a few of these here as illustrations? They’re easy to find online but I can grab a few for you- or if you’re worried about copyright we can take a few of our own. I think I’ve still got DIN and serial bits for some of my older PCs.

USB connectors are easily recognisable: They’re very slim, flat and rectangular, with a metal sheath all round. Half the end of the connector is filled with a plastic block, the other half is open. They’re fitted to a lot of modern peripherals: If you’ve got a flash memory stick or an mp3 player like an iPod, the end that connects to the computer is almost certainly a USB connector.

A1’s Minimum PC & Laptop Specification
When considering recycling your computer’s with A1 PRP, think about its intended use.

Because of the time and effort required to install and configure a working computer, it needs to have a useful service life once it reaches our trainee students.

For this reason, while we can use most equipment that is considered out of date, we do have a responsibility to set a limit on what we can and can’t take.

At present, A1 Positive Recycling Project will not accept any equipment that is not working, incomplete or more than 5 years old.

In addition:

All equipment must be the property of the Company, person.
Computers and laptops must have at least 256Mb of RAM and 20Gb of hard drive storage space.
Laptops must be supplied complete with a working compatible power supply unit (including cables).
Any peripherals (monitors, mice, keyboards etc) must be supplied with any data leads and/or power leads they need in order to operate.
In addition, printers must be supplied with ink or toner as applicable and have replacement parts and supplies available to buy.
CRT monitors (old-style, bulky screens) must not be more than 17” from corner to corner.
As of early 2009, a “five year old” PC is likely to be an early Pentium 4 machine with a processor speed of just over 1GHz, or an equivalent from another manufacturer (such as AMD etc).

Are there any limits on what equipment I can recycle with A1 Positive Recycling Project?
Answer
Yes. The intent of the IT training courses that A1 staff run is to train people to use modern software and IT systems. In order to do this we need to be sure that all of the equipment we recycle is capable of running fairly modern software, in most cases Windows 2000 or Windows XP. In addition, while we can and do effect minor repairs to equipment we receive we don’t yet have the facilities to deal with a lot of repair work, so we need to make sure the equipment we process is working and likely to stay reliable.

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Kind Regards

From

Mr Neil Wintrip CEO

A1’s Recycling Services: Secure On-Site Data Wiping, IT Recycling, Asset Management, Mobile Phone Recycling, Ink & Toner Sales & Recycling.

Mob: 07849-462 499
Tel: (01392) 20-27-79