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From: umapd51@cc.ic.ac.uk (W.A.C. Mier-Jedrzejowicz)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: Re: Thrown out HP's...
Summary: Maybe they are partly recycled
Keywords: old HP48s, August Conf.
Message-ID: <1991Feb24.033956.25431@cc.ic.ac.uk>
Date: 24 Feb 91 03:39:56 GMT
References: <99036CAFC00032A2@gacvx2.gac.edu>
Sender: Wlodek A.C. Mier-Jedrzejowicz
Organization: Imperial College Computer Centre
Lines: 21
Nntp-Posting-Host: suni2cc

EGU suggests he'll wander around Corvallis before the conference starts,
in August, looking for garbage dumps with HP48s. Why don't we allocate a
block to each attendee who comes a day early - that way our coverage
will be much more thorough - each attendee can check all the dumps etc
in just one block ;-)
How about a prize to the person who brings in the most old HP48s? Should
we disallow HP employees from this competition?
Seriously folks, when I was in Corvallis and asked about returned broken
calculators of the newer type (cannot be opened), I was told they break
these apart and recycle what they can. The outside plastic cover can be
melted down for reuse, some components (large capacitors and inductors?)
can be reused, and the gold can be stripped off the circuit boards. So,
it is not ALL wasted. I think our concern is that perfectly usable HP48s
are suffering the same treatment, just because their owners want the
latest version. Maybe HP or EduCalc could find a use for them. In the
UK, for example, the HP-28Cs they could not sell when the HP-28S was
introduced went to some schools. Now the pupils from those schools are
at college and are buying HP48s, so that looks like a smart move in the
long run.
Wlodek Mier-Jedrzejowicz, Space & Atmospheric Physics, Imperial College,
London