CHICO >> While working in the Los Angeles film industry, Chico native Dakota Rose watched in horror as production companies routinely threw away thousands of dollars of tech equipment.

Companies that didn’t have e-waste contracts, he explained, opted to discard cameras, computers and various types of hardware straight into dumpsters.

“I had friends who would see it, and they would call me and say, ‘I’m legally not allowed to give these to you, but they’re in the dumpster,’” Rose said. “So after work, I would just go dumpster diving.”

Rose — an adjunct professor in Butte College’s Film, Television and Electronic Media department — moved to LA around nine years ago to work in the film industry. When he moved back to Chico in 2023, he saw a need for computers and other hardware in the community; so, he founded Tech Toss.

In its first year, Tech Toss donated 30 laptops to people in Butte County, though it upcycles a variety of hardware beyond computers including cameras and tablets. While the company is just getting started, Rose said he’s been refurbishing and donating used tech for a decade.

Through Tech Toss, Rose aims to not only provide Butte County residents with upcycled tech, but also to provide educational and certification programs. Tech Toss, which does not have a physical workspace, offers these workshops in community centers by pulling from its fleet of 30 laptops and 20 desktops, mainly stored in Rose’s garage.

The nonprofit also offers internships for students at Chico State and Butte College. Student interns work on a variety of tasks including video content, marketing, refurbishing and graphic design.

Tech Toss also helps to provide hardware for game nights at Chico State that cater to students in the Computer Animation and Game Design major. Courtney Coleman, Rose’s significant other and business partner, noted how meaningful these events are for students.

“Students were so excited to have something like that,” Coleman said. “Not everyone wants to hang out at bars, and not everyone wants to just go out to eat. So we saw how excited the students were to have this event where they could just play games and hang out with their buddies.

“You could tell that there was definitely not a lot of that happening in the city, specifically gaming nights or whatnot.”

Future plans

Currently, Tech Toss is donating gear to people simply through word of mouth while it works on building its inventory. Donations to Tech Toss can be made by filling out a contact form at techtoss.org, where you can also find a full list of items that are accepted.

A main goal is to have a physical space to host workshops, provide a community center and to provide the business with much-needed storage. Rose is currently renting a storage unit in addition to using his garage.

Coleman noted the more space the company has, the more donations that can be accepted, refurbished and reused. She also said that their garage is not temperature controlled, making it unideal to store tech that can be damaged in heat.

As for the potential Tech Toss community space, Coleman and Rose said this is something Chico would greatly benefit from.

“If you go to the Bay Area or LA, there’s training centers everywhere (where) you can pay to go get a certification in DaVinci Resolve or Avid Media Composer or the Adobe Suite,” Rose said. “Butte County doesn’t have anything like that.

“And I’ve just noticed the lack of communal spaces. I mean, the Chico Women’s Club has been used for literally everything — and I love that place, but it’s clear to me that you either have that or you’re using the Elks Lodge, depending on which side of the aisle you sit on. And I really want there to be some sort of hybrid.”

He and Coleman picture a lounge space where people can hang, game and learn about tech. Rose noted this would also potentially be a late night kind of place, which he said Chico is also greatly lacking.

Finding a space has proven challenging, however. The scrappy self-startup is on a tight budget, with funds coming mainly out of pocket and from small community donations. Tech Toss is hoping to find a landlord who will rent them the space for free in exchange for the tax write-off of hosting a nonprofit.

For now, they are still on the hunt.

“We’re doing this because Dakota genuinely cares about his hometown,” Coleman said. “He genuinely cares about the people he interacts with, and we also care about sustainability.”

Reflecting on his drive for Tech Toss, Rose said, “It comes from me growing up in an incredibly low-income background and just kind of wanting to ease the barriers of entry in multimedia arts careers, which are already so difficult to get into to begin with.”

Molly Myers can be reached at mmyers@chicoer.com.