2012 – 2016

First time I explored a tech dump

by Sanju Bose

The gigantic boxes stood at attention in the basement of the DCC. Around the corner, at the loading bay. As I peered inside, my eyes lit up. The bottom of the first box was littered with broken scraps of plastic, various screws, and pieces that I imagined once lived in a hard drive. Nestled among the scraps were an LCD display and an outdated desktop PC. Score! I had only heard about the possibilities from an acquaintance who linked me a series of maps, pointing to the tech dumps in almost every building on campus. I lucked out on my first foray into the world of e-waste dumpster diving. I pried open the PC case and quickly snagged the old Pentium 4 processor and a few sticks of 512MB RAM. I held the LCD display proudly as I walked back to Quad, imagining the possibilities. Visiting the tech dumps became a daily routine for me, and I was able to repurpose much of what I collected over my 4 years. To this day, my collection of Pentium 4 processors, sticks of RAM, and harddrive magnets is proudly displayed on my shelf. My tech dump visits and subsequent personal projects earned me multiple internships, and eventually my job here at Apple. They were a critical part of my undergraduate experience, and these memories will live with me forever.