Rebooting Canada's Approach to E-waste

A bright idea to shrink the digital divide, and Third World landfills.

By Reanna AlderTooth and Dagger

David Repa and Ifny Lachance, along with the rest of the folks at Free Geek Vancouver, want to give you a free computer.

All it will cost to participate in their "adoption program" is 24
volunteer hours. During that time you will help to refurbish six
computers. At the end of it, you walk away with number six, a souped-up
"Freekbox" outfitted with the latest version of Ubuntu (a user-friendly distribution of Linux, a free, open-source operating system).

That's the plan, anyway. All they need now is a building, but City
Hall, real estate agents and landowners seem reluctant to take Free
Geek seriously.

"All the energy is there," says Repa, who notes the crunch at their current address, near Science World, is imminent.