Karl Furlong
Feb 20, 2022
In a warehouse on Jackson Street in downtown Eugene a row of people is busy working at a long table piled deep with gear. Grasping at pliers, hammers, and screwdrivers, the group is decked out in masks, safety shields, gloves, and industrial aprons. This is an electronics abattoir, and these men and women are cleaving apart mounds of old computers.
The warehouse is home to NextStep Recycling, and these workers are on the forefront of a movement to keep e-waste from the landfill. The odds aren’t in their favor. According to the EPA, over 50 million tons of electronic equipment is thrown away every year, and only 25% is recycled.
Sam Motley is a manager here, and when asked about the reason for so much waste he can’t put his finger on one single cause. Motley talks about corporate asset depreciate, planned obsolescence, processor speed improvements, software improvements, and over-consumption. The pitch of his voice raises and lowers as he talks, his sentences are choppy, and he sometimes falls silent, struggling to find just the right solution to an overwhelming issue.
“There certainly is a need for change, especially in terms of reuse,” said Motley. “I think it lies with the leadership of companies, because that's ultimately who's making the call, there's never really any regulation.”
In a way, Motley is half right. There are only 25 states with any kind of e-waste recycling laws on the books, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In half the country you can legally just toss your old electronic equipment out with the trash.
NextStep was founded in 2014. The company didn’t begin as an e-waste recycler. They started off refurbishing old computers and it’s still a big part of what they do. They fix them and then load them with opensource software before shipping them to people in need. Some of those people live in Eugene, and others live as far away as South America and Africa.
Motley said NextStep understands that getting a working piece of hardware is only half the battle. Software can be cost prohibitive, so NextStep “load Libre Office, a free opensource version of MS Office,” said Motley. “So people can still work and go to school without being held hostage to a piece of software.”
Over the years NextStep has stopped over 20 million pounds of waste from hitting the landfill. An insignificant amount globally, but for a small community like Eugene that makes a big difference.
Motley often expresses frustration when talking about the scale of the problem, but there is no doubting his dedication to the cause. “The endeavor is close to my heart,” said Motley. “It's something I see myself engaged in for a very long time.”