Ex-homeless man among environmental heroes
Published: April 21, 2006
James Burgett started as a homeless Dumpster-diver, cannibalizing old computer parts to feed a drug habit.
This week, he was among 39 western groups and individuals being honored as environmental heroes by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Thirteen, including Burgett, are from the Bay Area.
Local winners range from Berkeley-based Clif Bar Inc. to Sustainable Silicon Valley to the California Academy of Sciences. Nineteen-year-old Jeff Gustafson of Danville won for coordinating a host of environmental projects throughout the East Bay, including the maintenance of a 20-mile public trail through Contra Costa County.
But few stories rival Burgett’s.
Homeless at age 14, Burgett started raiding garbage bins to feed his drug habit. He would build computers out of parts and sell them.
Then he gave a few computers to a school. A local paper picked up the story. The next Monday, he says, a company called asking if he wanted 2,000 old desktops.
The Alameda County Computer Recycling Center was born. Today, the Berkeley-based center refurbishes and ships out 2,400 computers a year to anyone in need.
“Any successful drug treatment program finds something for the druggie to do,” he said Monday. “Nothing’s too old, nothing’s too weird.
“We’ll take it, we’ll refurbish it … and then we’ll turn around and give it to somebody.”
The center recently shipped 400 computers to Guatemala, he said.
“If we can’t turn it around, we’ll cannibalize it for parts. We’re pretty good at making sure it doesn’t end up in the Third World, unless it’s working.”
The center takes computers, printers and other equipment for a modest fee.
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