| General > General Technical Chat |
| What's the situation with E-Waste in your country? Can you 'pick up for repair'? |
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| Andy Chee:
Apart from the central waste collection depots, our major office supply retailer Officeworks (Office Depot in the USA, maybe Staples in the UK?) contains e-waste bins at the store entrance. Strictly no dumpster diving, but I try to have a quick rummage around while no-one is looking. |
| Njk:
--- Quote from: retiredfeline on December 21, 2023, 11:19:59 pm ---I'm pretty sure waste collection centres here don't allow hobbyists to go pick what they like because it would be disruptive to their operations, would only cover a tiny fraction of their waste stream, and there are OH&S and liability issues letting random people onto their premises. --- End quote --- That's for sure. Seen that. Back in seventies, here was a goverment-running trade-in scheme for consumer equipment. You could give up your old TV and get a discount certificate to buy a new one. The location of the processing facility was known to every local boy. In my town, it was a fenced field in the outskirt. A truck loads of old TVs were dumped there forming a large hill. Periodically, a caterpillar tractor was driven over the hill with the two purposes. To reduce the height of the hill so more TVs can be dumped there, and to prevent someone from getting something from the heap to sell it for money (an entrepreneurship was a crime). I was a schoolboy at the time and frequently sourced an electronic components from that place. We kept track of the heap status. The territory was lightly guarded and there was a big dog. But the dog was more hungry than evil, so we usually brought some raw meat with bones. While one boy was distracting the dog with food, the other could jump over the barber wire fence and start collecting the components. That very was funny. |
| EPAIII:
Here in Beaumont, TX we have several Goodwill centers that accept used electronics. They actually have someone who checks them out - I don't know if that person does any repairs or not. But they do resell the working ones. I have taken a number of items there and have even purchased an item or two. Goodwill is not a government owned thing. I think it is a private company and I believe they do operate for profit. But they are a source of inexpensive items for those who can't afford full price. When you get your merchandise for free, you don't need to charge a lot to make a small profit. And it is nice to see things actually being recycled instead of just increasing the height of those hills in the land fills. And we have a separate trash pick-up on the same day that the garbage is picked up. Items are just placed at the side of the street and a truck with a claw arm picks everything up. I have heard that the workers on that truck often grab things of value. Again, it is nice to see some of the waste being recycled. |
| abeyer:
WA, USA: locally we outsource a lot of ewaste handling to commercial companies -- some of which run full on retail stores reselling stuff that still works or is repairable. They're somewhat dangerous, as it's easy to go drop off a bit of junk, and come home with a box full of more junk! ;) |
| wilfred:
--- Quote from: Bud on December 21, 2023, 10:45:01 pm ---Here i do not need to visit a dumpster. People put stuff out by the curb by the garbage day and you can take what you want. In fact i am trying Not to take stuff anymore, as enough was hoarded already :-DD --- End quote --- Amen to that. Here in Australia I go shopping at La Strada (the roadside) but I have to pass by sometimes because people throw out too much stuff. My microwave failed after 12 years a few months ago whilst heating breakfast. By 11am I had gone 400m down the road and found another one brought it back home and it is working perfectly fine today. Best part is it was identical so I didn't even need to print and laminate another cheat sheet for rarely used functions. Not e-waste but a year ago I was heading out to buy a trolley jack, I got 4 houses down the street and picked up a better one than I ever would've bought. I just needed to find a circlip to secure one of the castor wheels from falling out if you picked it up. I've got in the last two weeks a pair of Hoover vacuum cleaners that had the full light on. They weren't old or worn out and a clean of the filters was all that was needed. These are barely even repairs. And aside from looking for a microwave for a spare HV diode I wasn't even looking for stuff. It was between home and the local shops. |
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