With the influx of new computer equipment into the nation's schools, district officials face a new and perplexing problem—what to do with piles of broken or obsolete electronic equipment.

Several states—most recently Massachusetts—have passed laws banning computer equipment from landfills. That means districts that used to put their old central processing units, monitors, and peripherals out on the curb for the trash collector have to come up with creative solutions to deal with an increasing amount