PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A New Jersey company set a lofty goal of gathering a million laptops to help close the digital divide. Corporate partnerships with GlaxoSmithKline and others have helped quite a bit, and your old computer could help too.
With more people working from home, manufacturers are stepping up to meet business demand. That means there are fewer low-priced computers being produced, and students who need laptops for at-home learning are being left out.
"There's a solution out there and it’s pretty simple," said Paul Baum, CEO of PlanITROI, based in Denville.
Baum founded the Digital Dreams Project, along with his daughter Camy, to gather old laptops and desktops from people and repurpose them for kids to use.
"We'll either pay you for your device if it's a newer device," he explained. "If it's about five to seven years old and there's still some value there, or you can donate it for a tax write-off."
According to Baum, just about any computer from the past 10 years or so can be refurbished.