Electronic waste recycling making me crazy!

[electrolux]

There's an electronics recycler down the road from me.  They'll sell you stuff if they have it.  I got a brand new Sun server rack complete with the power sequencers and power distribution from them for $200!  Took 4 guys to get it in the house and into the basement - it weighs about 400lbs.  You could have a field day in their warehouse - they are overflowing with crates of computer equipment.

Anthony

Electronics candy store?
It would be so nice to see an electronic surplus store in South Dakota.
BESIDES Radioshack!

There used to be one here but it's shut down before my time, one of my friends said you could go in there and get anything you like, dirt cheap he used to ha a whole room and the sides were lined with valves. And when you went in there were piles and piles of boxes of knobs, caps resistors you name it amazingly he knew where everything was. It's gone now

[amyk]

Here is a clip from electronic waste recyclers here in fresno. Certain types of waste they take for free on certain days, otherwise as a business it costs us about ten cents a pound to drop off scrap there. We strip out as much plastic and metal as we can to get the weight down before it goes there. Then in the shredder it goes. Most of it goes to china for processing cause we cant use the recovery leaching chemicals here in the states. Most of it just goes in the landfill over there. Out of sight, out of mind. And that place gets all the high fives and acolades the environmental groups can heap on them. Assholes. When you walk in to pay your tipping fees there is a ten foor tall photo of the owner shaking hands with president obama dedicating this "Green" recyceling center! All freaking hypocrisy.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/EKEhUYBkfWI

That video made me cry.

sigh.....

OMG, that and some of the related videos are just sickening... seeing things destroyed like that makes me want to cry too. Also makes me want to put the people who do that through the shredder!

[Someone]

Here is a clip from electronic waste recyclers here in fresno. Certain types of waste they take for free on certain days, otherwise as a business it costs us about ten cents a pound to drop off scrap there. We strip out as much plastic and metal as we can to get the weight down before it goes there. Then in the shredder it goes. Most of it goes to china for processing cause we cant use the recovery leaching chemicals here in the states. Most of it just goes in the landfill over there. Out of sight, out of mind. And that place gets all the high fives and acolades the environmental groups can heap on them. Assholes. When you walk in to pay your tipping fees there is a ten foor tall photo of the owner shaking hands with president obama dedicating this "Green" recyceling center! All freaking hypocrisy.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/EKEhUYBkfWI

That video made me cry.

sigh.....

OMG, that and some of the related videos are just sickening... seeing things destroyed like that makes me want to cry too. Also makes me want to put the people who do that through the shredder!

The video shows a very good system where they appear to be breaking the PCBs and other parts into separate processing, while shredding the enclosures to break the plastics and metals apart for sorting in a very typical metal/plastic mixed stream. Piles of low cost grey box computers and CRT monitors are entirely worthless so seeing them recycled at that level is very encouraging, rather than being buried.

[Dr Wobble]

I think the OP needs to get real. Disposal costs money -  someone has to pay. If you actually paid the "proper" price of your latest gadget, it would cost a lot more than $99.

Here in rural UK our local tip (re cycling facility) has piles of consumer electronics as does any other such place. They used to let folk buy stuff and hence recycle it. Not now ; all items as soon as they on council land are theirs. This is crazy on the one hand as you watch a vintage Marshall head get chucked in with unwanted PC's etc. But understandable in our litigious society.

I find my interest in electronics increasingly clashes with my environmental concerns. Electronics as some of may know uses toxic chemicals and processes as well as rare earth elements and all that entails. But that's life nowadays in the 21st century if you have a conscience. Cant use a tantalum cap without worrying about the state of Zaire.

I think a lot more much thought needs to go into electronic design as to how the product will be disposed of. The USA is lagging behind us in Europe in this respect.

I for one re use components off PCB,s and try and get as much use out of every electronic device. Most of my sound equipment is vintage/second hand and still working, some of it after 60 years.

Andy.

[Tinkerer]

If I get something thats basically going to be scrapped, I only take off the larger pieces. Things like power resistors and power mosfets, and anything with power you can add to the name I guess haha. All the small stuff isnt worth the time. Large stuff though, things like 5W and 15W resistors are certainly worth the short time it takes to yank them off.
The large stuff is removed and then the boards stacked into a box after I flatten any remaining parts poking up. Heat sinks are always a nice thing too. People on ebay will buy scrap; not sure the wisdom in them buying though. haha

[aroby]

Electronics candy store?
It would be so nice to see an electronic surplus store in South Dakota.
BESIDES Radioshack!

It's mainly computers.  They sell some stuff on Craigslist but it's not retail.  It's not very safe inside - stuff piled up everywhere. Boxes of disk drives, all sorts of cards and boards, power supplies, RAID arrays. It's amazing what they get from corporate data centers.

[TVman]

Electronics candy store?
It would be so nice to see an electronic surplus store in South Dakota.
BESIDES Radioshack!

It's mainly computers.  They sell some stuff on Craigslist but it's not retail.  It's not very safe inside - stuff piled up everywhere. Boxes of disk drives, all sorts of cards and boards, power supplies, RAID arrays. It's amazing what they get from corporate data centers.

 

[justanothercanuck]

I have a problem with hoarding PC parts.  5-10 years ago, computers didn't evolve as quickly as it does now, so owning a few Pentium 2/3/4's wasn't such a bad thing.

Since Intel started selling their Core i3/5/7 processors, I've finally decided that all my old computers are obsolete.  A few years back, I replaced 2 P2/P3 servers and 2 P4 PCs with an i7.  In a month or so, I'm probably replacing my P3 router with my last P4.  I might save some drive cables for cheap board-to-board interconnects, but besides that, everything else is going in the trash, er, I mean recycling. 

[dannyf]

if people were actually concerned about the "green thing"

You just need to remember that when they say "go green", or "reduce carbon footprint", they mean "YOU go green", or "reduce YOUR carbon footprint".

The "green" industry is about lining the promotors' pockets with green dollars.

It has nothing to do with the environment or humanity's future, at all.

[Rick Law]

if people were actually concerned about the "green thing"

You just need to remember that when they say "go green", or "reduce carbon footprint", they mean "YOU go green", or "reduce YOUR carbon footprint".

The "green" industry is about lining the promotors' pockets with green dollars.

It has nothing to do with the environment or humanity's future, at all.

I used to be an environmentalist when it used to mean protecting the environment.  Now it is how much can you make out of it.

I am so sick of seeing a bunch of solar panels facing trees.  Mean time, the installer makes out like a thief while we tax payers pay and pay and pay.

[turbo!]

And if whats sent for disposal goes into the trend of having high yield components(components of value on the secondary market, yields valuable raw materials, etc) already stripped, the buyback price goes down or disposal fees go up.

A carcass of large power distribution transformer yanked out is basically a can full of waste oil. The yield from scrap steel/other valuable materials and the disposal cost of undesirable materials from it factors into what the buy back price or disposal fee is. The labor cost in west is generally too high to bother with tearing things apart for scrap without a demand for whatever components/materials to offset the labor cost.

[MacAttak]

So most of this discussion has been about whole devices. What are some good options for disposal of the remnants of hardware that has already been stripped for parts. For example, I've got a few printers here that I've salvaged the motors from (along with a few other minor parts). You often can't reassemble them - so many damned parts and many dozens of screws to keep track of - so it ends up as a pile of plastic and metal parts with some circuit boards that may or may not have had some components removed.

I've also been known to take a baseball bat to a TV or DVD player or router or two that was malfunctioning enough to really piss me off.

How would that best be disposed of (here in the US)?

[steve30]

So most of this discussion has been about whole devices. What are some good options for disposal of the remnants of hardware that has already been stripped for parts. For example, I've got a few printers here that I've salvaged the motors from (along with a few other minor parts). You often can't reassemble them - so many damned parts and many dozens of screws to keep track of - so it ends up as a pile of plastic and metal parts with some circuit boards that may or may not have had some components removed.

I scrapped a few items a while back including a laser printer and a computer. The scrap metal went in a box which got took to the scrap metal recycler, the plastics got broken up and thrown in the trash, the electronics, motors, wiring, screws etc I kept for later salvaging.

[aroby]

And if whats sent for disposal goes into the trend of having high yield components(components of value on the secondary market, yields valuable raw materials, etc) already stripped, the buyback price goes down or disposal fees go up.

A carcass of large power distribution transformer yanked out is basically a can full of waste oil. The yield from scrap steel/other valuable materials and the disposal cost of undesirable materials from it factors into what the buy back price or disposal fee is. The labor cost in west is generally too high to bother with tearing things apart for scrap without a demand for whatever components/materials to offset the labor cost.

That's why so much gets sent to China, especially from the US.  The cost of sending a container from the US to China is pretty low (they have to get them back over there anyway), so they get filled with all sorts of scrap which is then disassembled by hand and recycled.   This book http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EME5MNK/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title is a good read about that industry.

Anthony

[KC0PPH]

Just put everything in trash bags and put it in the middle of your can... Trash guys could care less if you have a 5g bucket on mercury there... once its dumped in the truck its gone for goo.