This month the Free Geek Community Technology Center became the first Oregon nonprofit recognized as a Basel Action Network e-Stewards Recycler, the gold standard for ethical practices in electronics recycling.

BAN is an international nonprofit organization that advocates for environmental justice and responsibility in the handling of electronic waste. “It is an expensive and complex process to recycle electronics so the poisonous byproducts do not hurt people or the planet,” said Jim Pucket, BAN’s Executive Director. “We congratulate Free Geek on passing our rigorous review.” » Continue reading “Free Geek Designated “e-Stewards Recycler””

Are you teeming with altruism? Is a quirky and chaotic work environment your idea of utopia? Are you stoked about working with diverse people and organizations? Can you work Tuesday evenings and/or Fridays during the day?

Then we have just the volunteer internship for you! Free Geek’s awesome Hardware Grants Program could use some extra support in giving computers out to community organizations. Please check out the volunteer internship description for more information and an application.

Pen the Next Free Geek Slogan and win $200!

We’ve tried on our share of slogans over the years. The closest thing we have to an official slogan right now is “Helping the Needy Get Nerdy Since the Begninning of the Third Millenium.” It started out as a quote from an article about us, and it kinda just stuck.

A lot of folks love it. But a lot don’t. Most of these folks seem to stick on the word “needy,” since we help everyone get geeky. It’s true! Free Geek represents a lot of things to a lot of different people. Which is what makes it so dern hard to sum it all up in a few words.

That’s where you come in! » Continue reading “Geek Sloganoff!”

FreeGeek forgot to update our keyring package in time, so FreekBox users may be experiencing issues with running the update manager. If you are receiving an error message regarding GPG signatures not being verified when you try to install or update packages please check here for information on how to correct the problem.

If you submitted a web-form to us anytime between April 27th and May 9, we did not receive it due to a technical glitch (we won’t bore you with the details). This includes all hardware grant applications, requests for information on volunteering, requests for event participation–anything you may have submitted to us via our website.

We sincerely hope this message finds you, and that you contact us again. It’s not that we’re being flakes. We can all blame technology together.

Requests sent via email were mostly unaffected. If you emailed us and we didn’t get back, that probably is us being flakes. If in doubt please resend.

All apologies for the inconvenience!

Well, here it is. It only took a couple-few years to get here, but we’re ready to roll out our brand new site. Thanks to everyone who contributed their time and skills to make it so. (And a special thanks to the fine folks from slashdot.org that helped us stress test the site after going live. We’re back now.)

It’s a work in progress, and we’ll be tweaking things a lot in the weeks to come. In addition to the new look, the goal of this site is to make it easier to maintain and keep up-to-date. That is why we’ve chosen to use WordPress as our platform; we want this site to operate as a blog because things move pretty fast at Free Geek, and we need a site that can keep pace.

Please look around. And tell us what you think about the new site: The look, the layout, the content. Did you find what you were looking for? Anything we’ve neglected? Something broken? Please let us know.

Oregon E-Cycles
Free Geek is participating in Oregon E-Cycles, a convenient way for Oregon residents to responsibly recycle their computers (including laptops), monitors, and televisions. The first 7 of these items are always free to recycle with Free Geek, but if you have 7 or more of these items, please call us beforehand to determine if you qualify for free recycling on everything! Read more here.

January, 2008 High-Tech Trash features information about the global and national e-waste trade, and the human and environmental damage that’s possible with the mishandling of e-waste.

RECYCLE YOUR IPOD AT FREE GEEK
January 8, 2008 Portland Tribune, Sustainable Life feature Don’t toss that old iPod in the trash encourages readers to give their iPods to Free Geek for reuse, not just recycling.

April 19, 2008 ‘Tis the season to dispose of your old electronics responsibly. We’ll be accepting stuff from: 1-800-GOT-JUNK, Buckman-Kerns Neighborhood Association, PCC Rock Creek, and Gresham Earth Day. Additionally, we’ll be staffing booths at City Repair’s Earth Day Celebration, Providence Medical Center, and PCC Rock Creek.