76 replies to this topic

[SifuPhil]

Shortpoet-GTD, on 01 December 2011 - 03:55 AM, said:

I remain extremely leery of folks (businesses) that say they are recycling computers, or for that matter,
electronics in general.
Too high of a percentage of this e-trash is still being shipped to Asian countries, where poor people
(mostly kids) disassemble them for the elements, and are becoming ill from exposure to the toxins.

If one exercises due diligence in researching an eRecyler it isn't too difficult to determine if they're legal and properly equipped. What I'd be interested in knowing is, what are the alternatives to recycling? Are we just going to keep dumping monitors in landfills or the ocean?

Quote

http://www.greenpeac...e-waste-end-up/
http://news.national...onic_waste.html

Old links, especially the second one. Things have changed a bit - I daresay for the better.

[Wallie0912]

SifuPhil, on 30 November 2011 - 04:03 PM, said:

And a by-the-way: I know I'm new here and no-one has any reason to trust my judgement, but I did some work for this gentleman a while back and I think he's a reputable eScrapper. If you were to send a hard-drive to him as part of a recycle deal I'm pretty sure it's his policy to destroy the data thoroughly.

http://www.scrapmeta...Buying-E-waste.

What's their definition of "working"?  I have a couple of old laptops that still boot up but are pretty much hopelessly obsolete.  Are those working and usable, or non-working?

[omkar1991]

Wallie0912, on 05 December 2011 - 12:09 PM, said:

What's their definition of "working"?  I have a couple of old laptops that still boot up but are pretty much hopelessly obsolete.  Are those working and usable, or non-working?

If they still boot up, they are still working.

[kathie_san]

LOL I've had like 3 broken desktop computers before, they're really old. What I did was to have them sold at a junk shop. The price was really cheap but then, it's ok since I have gotten rid of clutter in my house. It's fairly easy to recycle old and broken appliances and they would pick it up for free in your home.

[Tom Servo]

You'd be surprised how many things are a total pain in the butt to recycle. It doesn't shock me that CPU's are the same. I guess there's a lot of work in separating the metals and the plastics?

[mariaandrea]

I've read posts before from people living in countries other than the US who talk about selling things to junk shops and it makes me sad that we don't have places like that here. Or at least not many. I know my city pretty well and there isn't one I know about. Sure, we have pawn shops and secondhand stores and charities like Goodwill, but no old-fashioned junk shops. And those other places only take newer, good quality stuff for the most part that's easy to resell. It's like we only want new things and when they break down we just throw them away instead of giving them a new life. And it's probably not economically feasible to run a junk shop in an expensive city like this one. It's a shame.

[SpikeTheLobster]

My local recycling point (otherwise known as "tip" or "dump") now takes CDs, DVDs and monitors, as well as "small electronics". I don't know exactly how far that definition extends into PC components because I've never tried to recycle them that way - I always take the slightly easier route of selling them on eBay. Yes, people will buy really old PC gear, even if it might not be working. They may only pay a few pennies for it (plus the postage) but if it gets the stuff reused, gives it a longer life or even if it's just one more step before eventual recycling, it's worth it in my book.

[artistry]

This post has a lot of food for thought in it. Thanks all. As far as recycling computers, there is a group that will pay you a minimum amount, to send them your old computers. You have to pay for the pickup by UPS or take it to their office, the do pay the postage,so it adds up to really just getting rid of the old computer. The company is Cash4Laptops.com.

[sculptor]

how do you know if someone is a redneckgeek?

[Pushhyarag2000]

kat74, on 21 November 2011 - 10:33 PM, said:

That is way many of these computers end up in the third world countries being sold at a cheaper price. They then end up being their problem on how to dispose them when they become unused. There must be a law which will prevent people exporting or importing computers which are a certain years old because either way they become a problem no matter where they land.

omkar1991, on 29 November 2011 - 08:54 AM, said:

Whatever information might be there, it will be there only on the hard disk drive. If you take that out, and send the rest of it, you are completely safe from people trying to glean out your information from your computer. In most cases, you can re use a hard disk in your new computer if it is not already corrupted.

These two views typically convey what we have in India. Recycling is far cry and most people stay exposed to hazards from every kind of waste that gets dumped. Every establishment, small or big has a backyard store where old monitors, keyboards, printers and disks get dumped & piled up with no clue for them about how they would dispose them. Some manage to sell them away to scrap dealers but not everything gets reused. Ultimately there must be big junk spaces outside of every town where these have been dumped. There's a huge problem in the making.

[anEgrahm]

In our area there are plenty of people who distribute, buy and trade computer parts. There are also people who build them for us (I'm not exactly bright with putting together computers), and I think that our community is into everything - we have specific programs dedicated to recycling mobiles, and these contact schools etc.

Our area is pretty good with recycling computers and their parts.

[sculptor]

by the number of old computer carcases he has up on blocks in the driveway

ok -------odd joke and relies on assuming that everyone understands our colloquialisms
(it went over really well with my rural Iowa neighbor who is a programmer)--when i met him years ago, we both had long hair and he asked me why i did, and i said it keeps me from having a red neck------to which he responded, having one? or being one?----now, i just say it's a religious thing.........pause....... shoould i explain? and ..............no one has asked me to continue
....................................
but seriously....

locally, both goodwill and wallmart are willing to take old computers and  parts for recycling,
and a local tv repair guy will take all the old televisions-----even if they don't work(he always wants the remote control too)

[joeldgreat]

Just as many had shared, it would be better to donate old computers to charities that accepts them. Its more economical and convenient to you and many more people would find it useful. I remember that I had this very old computer before and had to donate it because I cannot dispose it properly.

[MercyL]

ConservativeGreen, on 30 November 2011 - 02:13 PM, said:

Remember the last shuttle disaster?  They found a hard drive that had survived all that and were still able to recover data from it.  Physical destruction can be a great stress reliever, when applied at the rifle range old drives make a fun target.

Did you see this information about the hard drive in an article or a blog entry? Please send the URL to me. I'd love to read the rest of the article to discover other items that have survived re-entry.

Most news stories tell us that items reentering the atmosphere will hit the ocean or burn up. I'd like to create a list of space junk to watch for!

[fancyfingers]

In Arizona, a few companies have banded together to make recycling computers, old tvs, Christmas trees, holiday decorations, pretty much anything that can avoid going into the landfill but can't go into the regular recycling bins. The day was two days ago where they had big bins set up and you could just drive up and drop the stuff off! It is once a year in the Phoenix area and once a year in the Tucson area. It is a great start.

[kat74]

Since I come from the so called third world countries, some guys come up with the idea of collecting any old computers and assembling the good parts to make a good computer. Then they distribute them to our local schools for learning and so far it seems to be working just fine. I must admit though that disposing of computers and any other electrical gadget is a big environmental problem.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

"As for where the e-waste ends up, it's anyone's guess. Journalists have followed Americans' old gadgets
to China, as well as Ghana, among other far-off countries."

http://brick.patch.c...ecycling-center

[tri-n-b-helpful]

Computers are easy to recycle. The secret is to do the sorting yourself and any scrap metal recycling center will pay you good money for your effort. These days, especially as we can see in Hardwaste Collections, people and whole companies are throwing out computers and monitors by the dozen. Virtually every part of computers and monitors are accepted. One of the more valuable parts of old computers is the power supply. A 350W power supply sells for a couple hundred dollars commercially. It is very easy to make a high-current 12V supply or an even higher-current 5V supply from instructions we can find online. These can easily be ganged together for much higher requirements too, as the instructions show.
I have successfully recycled hundreds of old computers. The plastic coated wiring is easy to remove and my local recycling center pays $2.30/kg for this stuff. Hard drives and other disk drives can be fully stripped down to basic brass (about $4 a kilogram today) and aluminium (about a dollar a kilogram today). Steel and ciruit boards go for twenty cents a kilogram. Sometimes they accept the old crt glass part of the monitor.

[13tyates]

There is no place where I live that actually will take the computer or a TV or some other electronic product and recycle it properly for you. I think it would be great to have a place like that, but with me living in a small town we do not even have paper and plastic recycling! I feel that is the first step for us. We do have 2 or 3 metal recycling places that will take computers and you get paid for it. Who knows what they do with it though. I would not want to know, that's for sure!

[Hayden]

There's some useful links for Donating or Recycling Old Computers here:
http://www.epa.gov/o...ling/donate.htm