ClosingTheDivide Feature on the Evergreen Times

Since the invention of the household computer, the rich and elite have always had easy access to new technology, while the poor struggle to catch up. Even in Silicon Valley, the epicenter of technological innovation, thousands of families have no devices or internet access. ClosingTheDivide (CTD) was created for combating the digital divide by providing low-income families with computing devices. CTD’s e-waste program is based on a simple premise, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” The organization’s research determined that the digital divide was coupled with another issue of e-waste. When the upper and middle class discard their working devices with every new consumer electronics release, those devices end up in landfills, destroying the environment and polluting cities.