The mélange comprised mostly leaded resistors, capacitors, and semiconductors, all of pre-RoHS origin and either loose or falling out of crumbling plastic bags. A smattering of dried insects and Vermont warehouse dust topped off the batch. Sorting and repackaging the lot would have taken months, but these obsolescent components were still usable and too good to recycle as scrap metal.

Lyle Patterson, WinCycle's facilities manager, suggested that we find someone to whom we could donate the components. I contacted local amateur-radio clubs and publicized a series of open-house events in which radio amateurs were invited to visit and take home whatever they could use. Over several weeks, only a dozen or so showed up.

To reach a wider audience, I offered the parts to a couple of amateur-radio newsgroups that emphasized radio-equipment construction. Requestors would pay for a flat-rate US Postal Service Priority Mail package and receive approximately 10 lb of randomly mixed parts.

We encouraged radio amateurs who were unemployed, disabled, living on fixed incomes, or located far away from hamfests and other sources of parts to request packages. By the time we ran out of components, we had shipped 112 packages to most of the US, including Hawaii and Alaska—that's more than 1000 lb of usable parts delivered into the hands of radio amateurs of all ages and skills who build their own equipment and thus learn about electronics. Sorting and identifying components just might inspire future test and reliability engineers, too.

Before your company trashes a stockroom full of obsolete components, why not give them away instead? They're worth more in the hands of hobbyists than as smelter feedstock. In addition to amateur-radio enthusiasts, those robot builders, electronic-music constructors, and budding microprocessor hackers might be your future employees—and customers!