A renowned e-waste innovator is going to prison for producing 25-cent discs that could’ve saved thousands of computers from the landfill











Eric Lundgren built the first “electronic hybrid recycling” facility in the United States, which turns discarded cellphones and other electronics into functional devices.

Known for building an electric car out of “garbage” that outlasts a Tesla, his company processes more than 41 million pounds of e-waste a year.

Lundgren has received international praise for slowing the stream of harmful chemicals and heavy metals into the environment, and counts IBM, Motorola and Sprint among clients grateful for his cheap refurbished products.

Unfortunately, Microsoft is not such big a fan of Lundgren’s work.

When he figured out how to recycle e-waste from China into “restore discs” used to reinstall Windows software onto crashed hard drives, Microsoft took him to court, claiming he cost the company millions of dollars in lost sales.

Lundgren argues he hasn’t cost Microsoft any sales, as the company provides restore disks for free with software purchases, but many buyers lose or throw them away.

Microsoft also provide free downloads to restore the software to licensed customers online, but many customers don’t know that’s an option, and end up throwing the computer away as a result.