412,500 Scanners Reused Not Scrapped : New Software Keeping Old Scanners Out of Waste Stream
Miami, Florida based software firm, Hamrick Software, has prevented over 412,500 scanners from going to landfill sites globally by enabling legacy equipment to continue functioning.
The company said that it has been common practice for many years for scanner manufacturers to stop supporting scanners when a new operating system is announced. The latest driver is not released and the only way for the scanner to continue to work is to use alternative software.
To keep older scanner out of the waste stream, VueScan said that it supports over 3000 scanners from 35 manufacturers in a combination of 3 operating systems - Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
“Compared to other devices, many types of scanners have not seen so many technological advances, and we know that people are loath to discard it when there is absolutely nothing wrong with it,” explained Ed Hamrick, the President of Hamrick Software. “We know from the emails we receive that many people are delighted to be able to keep something perfectly usable."
"We work with many of the scanner manufacturers, they provide us with technical information so we can support their scanners and VueScan is regularly recommended in user technical discussions. He concluded, “It would be great to work with them more on how we can make a bigger difference to the environment."
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