Printable Policy Page

The purpose and policy of the Computer Recycling Program of the Alachua Free-Net are listed below. We have divided the information into four categories. Since it is not always possible to separate the policy from the information, they are listed together. Please let us know if you still have questions regarding what we do.

General Information

The Recycling Program is a part of the Free-Net of Alachua County. It is a non-profit, totally volunteer organization with individuals donating their time and effort to help the community through greater access to computers. It is the goal of this group to assist with the legitimate use of discarded computer equipment, rather than have it end up in the landfill. It is also nice to help people into the information age who might not have the opportunity by any other means.

In order to better serve the public, we have established an association to share resources with The Dignity Project.

Inquires about the recycling program e-mailed to recycle@afn.org.

Donations

Donation Acknowledgment Form - When requested, a signed receipt describing the equipment donated will be given to the donor. This receipt may be used by the donor for tax purposes, however, no dollar value will be determined by the AFN Recycling Program or it's members. It will be the sole responsibility of the donor to obtain the "fair market value" for any donated equipment and claimed for tax purposes.

AFN Recycling Program accepts donations of personal computers and related equipment with the intent of redistributing this equipment to organizations and individuals with special needs who have no other access to computer resources and/or the internet.

AFN Recycling Program accepts whole computers and/or computer peripherals and/or components, with the following:

Arrangements have been made with the Alachua County Household Hazardous Waste Collection Center and The Dignity Project of Gainesville as Drop-Off locations for donations.

Donations can be dropped off at:

The Alachua County Household Hazardous Waste Facility.

The HHWCC is Located at 5125 NE 63rd Ave. next to the Leveda Brown Environmental Park and Transfer Station (2 Miles North of the Gainesville Airport off Waldo Rd North of the Airport -- follow the signs). A map to facility can be found here. They will accept working systems for donation if it meets our donation criteria. Please be sure to tell them that the system is functional when you drop it off.

Or

The Dignity Project is located at 1125 SE 4th Street Gainesville, FL. They can be reached by phone: (352) 371-6792, fax: (352) 371-6707, or e-mail: info@TheDignityProject.com. More information can be found on their website.

Software - Due to legal liabilities concerning copyrights and ownership of software, the following considerations are made :

Requests

Requests for computers are considered on a case-by-case basis by the AFN Computer Recycling Program volunteers. Some of the areas used for determination are as follows:

The criteria for deciding where the computers are distributed has been kept deliberately informal, as the particular type of equipment that we have, and the requests vary significantly. This has not posed a problem in the past and we hope it will continue to work in the same way.

If you are in need of a computer and/or equipment, please e-mail us at recycle@afn.org or use the on-line request form to tell us of your needs. We will consider your request and let you know what we can do. Please include all contact information needed to contact you.

All equipment distributed by the AFN Recycling Program is distributed as-is and AFNRP cannot support or accept responsibility for any equipment after it has been distributed.

Although we accept a wide range of equipment, working and not-working, please bear in mind that one of our goals is to re-distribute this equipment into the community. Therefore, it is not in the best interest of the program to receive equipment that has no salvageable parts in it (stripped out chassis and computers void of all chips, simms, cards, drives are not really usable), or is beyond repair.