"Brock's math skills are a force to be reckoned with," his supervisor, Donna Davis, says. She asked him once, "Brock, how many TV dish boxes do you think you can take apart in a hour? Two?"

"No, more."

"Three?

"Yes, I think, three."

Brock did the math. "At this rate, with the hours I have left today, I'm going to get about fourteen done!"

"Ok," Donna told him. "Today, I'm not going to prompt you to keep working. I'm going to let you work all day at your own pace."

Later, he came to Donna with a paper covered with his calculations. "Actually, I think I could get 13.205 done."

Donna laughs, retelling the story. "I don't know how he would take apart .205 of a TV dish boxes, but his math was right!"

At the end of that day, though, Brock came back to Donna, looking disappointed. He was holding a paper lined with tally marks. "I only got twelve done today."

"Wow, Brock!" Donna exclaimed. "That's more than you've ever done!"

"Yeah, but I didn't get my fourteen done," Brock said, anxiously.

"Yeah, but think about all you did! You helped all the customers who dropped off stuff at the door. You unloaded a van from the Cosmosphere. You unloaded other boxes, too. You had a lot of other things to do besides the TV dishes."

"Oh," Brock said. "You're right. I did do a lot of work."

Donna says Brock typically processes about seven or eight TV dish boxes a day. While he's working, his anxiety sometimes overwhelms him, and he needs encouragement to keep working.

"He wants to please; he doesn't want to let anyone down," Donna explains. When he thinks he's not doing enough to meet what's expected of him, he becomes anxious. Donna tried to help him instead focus on a concrete challenge--of defining and meeting his goals.

With that focus, she saw him excelling: in the story she told, he nearly doubled his processing speed!

Helping Clients Excel

Brock is one of four employees who work at the TECH E-Cycle Center in Hutchinson. It's a not-for-profit branch of TECH, Inc., an organization that enables "Hutchinson-area individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities live the fullest life possible," according to the "About" page on their website.

Donna says, "These four do fantastic work. It's just that they need more support than they would get in most workplaces. Some of them have anxiety issues; others need help making good decisions. Their needs are different, but they can do so much here. They teach me things!"

Michelle can take apart the main unit of a computer in ten minutes. Once, Donna says, they mounted a time-lapse camera above her work area, then compressed the pictures it took to a twenty-second movie. You can see the clip here.

TECH works to develop "independence, creativity, self-worth, and connection" in their clients, and they are clearly succeeding with Brock, Michelle, Dewain, and Michael. The four love the independence they have from their income. On payday, Donna says, they always go out to eat with friends, celebrating what they have earned.

[Note: The photo above is not of the current team described in this article.]

Diverting Waste from the Landfill

According to TECH's "History" page, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment licensed the facility in 2011 as a solid waste processing and reclamation center, specifically for working with e-waste.

The donation flow has grown phenomenally. Donna reported that in 2015 the center took in over 200,000 pounds of used technology items. Over 300 area businesses and organizations brought in items, in addition to individual donations.

Donna, Brock, Michael, Dewain, Michelle, and everyone who donated kept almost a hundred tons of e-waste from going to the landfill. Five hundred pounds of the donations could not be reclaimed, but the rest went to places to be reused or recycled into new items.

Donna thrives on the variety of change in her job. She loves seeing who will come through the door, and what they will bring in. She also loves networking: working with the Reno County government to gain visibility or funding, or cold-calling businesses to let them know where they can drop off old technology.

Besides their location at 1300 E Ave. A in Hutchinson, they have another drop-off location at the Reno County landfill. Stutzman's Refuse Disposal allows TECH to use one of their semi trailers. The space is lined with large cardboard boxes on pallets, each of which is labeled with a type of technology they accept.

When the trailer is full, Stutzman's picks it up and brings it to the processing facility on Ave. A to be emptied. In the last eight weeks, residents loaded the trailer with over 6,000 lbs. of e-waste.

Recycling Unwanted Technology

When donations come in, Donna or the other employees do an initial sorting, pulling off any wire, motors, or other easy-to-remove parts. The larger pieces, like the main units of computers or TV dish boxes, go on “the line,” as Donna calls it, for Brock, Dewain, Michelle, or Michael to disassemble.

They remove and sort the components into boxes carefully labeled with pictures: green boards, floppy drives, power supply units, fans, wire, memory cards, even the plastic.

The smaller parts get sold or donated to smaller businesses. Dillon Nature Center takes the wires with LED lights--the ones that signal whether a computer is on or off--and uses them for projects in their STEM summer camps for kids.

TECH also donates toner cartridges to Cartridge King of Kansas, a branch of Multi Community Diversified Services, which employs disabled adults to refill them with ink.

Inviting Your Help

With a generous donation from the Hutchinson Community Foundation, TECH was able to print postcards explaining the program and what they accept. They mailed this postcard to 5000 Reno County residents, and it is now part of the business pack that the Reno County Chamber of Commerce mails out every year.

You can read a brochure with similar information here.

Here's my sales pitch. I wrote this piece because I really care about two things.

I want to support places where disabled people can do meaningful work--gaining self-respect and dignity. I also want to stop our landfills from doing what their name suggests--filling our land with trash that won't decompose for decades, maybe centuries.

That's why I love TECH's E-Cycle Center.

We don't need to feel guilty about throwing away our old Razr flip phones or worn-out VCR players. TECH's capable team will take care of all the technology we've enjoyed, but can't use anymore.

Check out the brochure and take the time to take your e-stuff to TECH. You'll love meeting the crew!

From their website:

Drop Off Location & Hours

- See more at the TECH E-Cycle page.