The software is then repackaged in bulk and sold to software companies or disk-duplicating firms. CDs are thrown into a grinder, which reduces them to a gravel-like substance. The material is sold to a polymer company that melts it down and converts it to plastic. The company is processing 3 million floppy disks and 1 million CDs a month. The company, which handles millions of pieces of recyclable material, gets requests from software companies across the country to dispose of excess products.
Consumers are out of luck, however.
Before Trotter came along, computer companies forked over thousands of dollars a year todisposal services to have their excess products dumped into landfill. It was expensive, and environmentally unsound. In some cases, enterprising garbage collectors would sift through dumpsters and then resell the discarded software. A handful of companies nationwide have followed Trotter's lead and are recycling software for businesses. GreenDisk of Preston, Wash., and Next Generation Services of Hayward offer similar services for the likes of Microsoft, Novell and Lotus.