By Huck Fairman
Chris Howard of Princeton Printers on Nassau Street noticed that a lot of customers were coming in with questions about their own computers. Some wanted to clean and repair them; some wanted to dispose of or recycle, but were concerned about securing or saving their data.
Few of us know how to do these several, inevitable steps which most of us face at one time or another. Others found their computers had viruses they didn’t know how to deal with, or that their computer was heating up; still others wanted to back up their data to flash drives or other computers, before they made any decisions.
Once a year the town sponsors a computer and electronic collection for residents, but Chris found the need for computer solutions and servicing far outstripped that program.
And so, for a couple of months, he has been providing a range of computer services (cleaning, repair, data wiping or retrieval and storage, charging modest fees,) but also providing a computer recycling program that sends computers, once repaired, cleaned, and wiped of personal data to Better Together which works with the YWCA to introduce, educate, and provide computers to young students.
Since a great number of us have one or more computers over time, a large volume of electronics, metals, and plastics is necessarily building up. Recycling is the answer. But that recycling can occur at different stages, be it (1.) Princeton Printers’ refurbishing and/or data retrieval and storage (for MACs or WINDOWS), (2.) refurbishing and distributing computers to new owners as Princeton Printers does for the Y, or (3.) stripping out reusable components, as recycling companies do, before melting down remaining metals.
