A Message from the Executive Director, Nancy Jo Craig:

Experts estimate that our country will have over 400 million obsolete computers. In addition to computers there are discarded cellphones, palm pilots, I-pods, the list goes on and on. Today only 13% of these obsolete computers and electronics are recycled or reused. The rest may end up in landfills, with electronic waste becoming a leading source of environmental hazard and the fastest growing part of our waste stream. Louisiana is a state with one of the highest poverty rates for children, many without the resources to afford a computer. The CACRC is a nonprofit designed to meet these challenge head on and reuse discarded computers for schools, nonprofits, low income families, the general public, while recycling the electronics that cannot be fixed.

According to CompuMentor's Jim Lynch, "from an environmental standpoint, it is best to reuse computers an extra two or three years than to recycle their components. Over each computer's life cycle, reselling or upgrading computers saves 5 or 20 times more energy than recycling. The cost in material for producing a computer and monitor is immense, especially microprocessors. The average 53-pound desktop computer and monitor requires 530 pounds of fossil fuels, 50 pounds of chemicals and 3,330 pounds of water - 1.8 metric tons in all. It takes thousands of chemicals to make a computer. The total energy used per year of owning a computer is roughly the same as a refrigerator, the most expensive home appliance in terms of cost of ownership. It's far better for the environment to hang on to a computer if possible for an extra couple of years than to recycle it and buy a new one every 3 to 4 years." Reuse and recycling reduce the negative impacts of mining and processing of raw material, including the impacts on habitat, water, and air quality. Reuse and recycling of electronics also avoids the need for plastic production and precious metal mining for circuit boards.

In 2007 the CACRC refurbished and recycled over 1000 tons of used electronics. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the environmental savings due to this work are the equivalent to: