Recycling electronic waste.

Do you separate your household trash? We have three bins, wheelie things, for trash, recycling, and compost. But hazardous materials (batteries, chemicals, paint, CF lamps) aren't supposed to go in any of those. We save them up and take them to a disposal center.

John

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up

I watched that and yet again they failed to mention how this scrap is reprocessed. Plastic cases if of one plastic and the right sort can be recycled. Plastic insulation stripped off if large electical cable , but ribbon cables etc mechanically stripped for the copper in the UK? aluminium iron , steel and copper wire yes. but who processes the pcb boards mechanically/chemically in this country to extract the solder?as far as I know all the boards get aggregated and sent in empty containers (dirt cheap as going in the now normal reverse direction) and burnt in heaps in India mainly. What happens to all that CRT glass ? The rest is processed sand and hard plastic

At the flats we have general refuse bins + glass, paper & cans.

Points of sale have battery bins for the general gadget type batteries, lead acid have to be taken to the council refuse yard.

No they didn't - they showed an example legitimate recycling firm that shreds everything and sends the fragments down a conveyor belt for casual labourers to pick bits out.

ends

the

freecycle,

How do we know it is legitimate if the next stage in the process is not divulged. Where did the CRT lead-loaded glass go to from there , where did the bits of circuit board go to ? Were TO3 devices or whatever has specifically dangerous contents , shredded or removed prior to shredding?

I'd love to hear about the "dangerous" stuff in a TO3 can.

Beryllium oxide.................sometimes.

haha.

sounds scary. I better get the hazmat team to throw away my 1970s stereos.

this video by artist chris jordan has some extremely disturbing points on the shameful wastefulness of the so-called developed world:

some more at 38 mins into this video:

- partuclarly pertinent when he looks at the ID tags and company labels on the junk PCs.

Recycling is all well and good, but treats the symnproms not the problem. What is really needed but not often addressed, is questioning of the failed idea of constant growth as an ideal. see Serge Latouche and deGrowth:

regards, B

sorry - should read : symptoms!

-B

this video by artist chris jordan has some extremely disturbing points on the shameful wastefulness of the so-called developed world:

What I'd like to know is how to make some of the scrap PCs come my way.

Firstly I could probably find something better than I've got.

Secondly I could aquire more HDDs to store all the stuff I download.

Thirdly I could make some cash refurbishing and selling any surplus.

Tell people you know that you'll take their old computers and wipe any personal information from the hard drives. Then ask them to tell others about you. Be careful, or you'll get so many you won't have room for them.

Most of the people I know want money for their old computer.

Recently I found a Next brand all in one flat screen jobbie in the bin room, it was all on a single PCB with row upon row of burst electrolytics - but I scored a 250Gb laptop style HDD and a couple of 1Gb PC2 sticks, didn't have anything I could test the Celeron CPU in though.

I know people like that, too, but I know about 25X as many who just want them out of their way.

I picked up a working Dell Insperion 531S w/512 MB of RAM and two good LCD monitors for free a fewweeks ago. Not only were they given to me, but the woman insisted on loading them in my truck for me. So far, she's given me about 20 computers and 30 monitors. :)

Scored a hit on freecycle today.

Someone emailed with "a few" computers - some working, some not. Turned out to be a garage full.

Its times like this not having a car is a PITA, I turned up on the motorcycle expecting to make a few trips, anyway with a bit of negotiation he started loading his car - and somewhat more enthusiastically when I offered to take all he wanted rid of, and not just pick the best bits and leave him with the rubbish.

I picked up 7 19" gateway LCD monitors on Craig's list that only needed a few electrolytics in the power supplies. One had a damaged panel, and another had a damaged case, so that left six repairable 19" monitors. :)

I got a phone call a couple days ago from a local thrift store that said they have a truckload of 'computer stuff' for me to pick up early Monday morning. They had called one of my usually pickup sites to see who took their 'computer stuff'. Now, I need to unload the truck from two stops on Friday. I've started doing 'triage' on the tailgate to separate the obvious junk from the items that may work, or be worth fixing. If something is too old to fool with, or missing too many parts I grab a cordless drill and dismantle it outside. Then I use a paintbrush or portable air compressor to remove most of the dust bunnies. If something is covered in Nicotine or may have bugs, it goes in the garage instead of the shop.