Southwest Michigan's trash is Doug Chapman's treasure.Chapman, executive director of Bridges to Digital Excellence, is taking the unwanted refuse of many Southwest Michigan businesses - in the form of old computers, vacuums, microwaves and anything else with a plug - and, almost literally, turning it into gold.
With its new Responsible Recycler Program, officially announced Thursday, BDE is reaching out to the many area businesses with closets full of junk nobody seems to know what to do with, Chapman said. The Benton Harbor-based BDE, a nonprofit that donates computers, provides computer training classes and offers IT services, collects and breaks down the electronics into their recyclable parts.
"We really do try to make it a point to recycle everything we can," said Chapman, while standing in the recycling center surrounded by BDE employees systematically stripping computer hard drives and snipping wires, tossing each component into its own bin to make the recycling easier...
BDE employs 19 people though Michigan Works, the Michigan Prisoner ReEntry Initiative, the Michigan Department of Human Services' Jobs, Education and Training program, and other organizations that help the chronically unemployed.
www.heraldpalladium.com/articles/2011/03/18/local_news/3945241.txt
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