Electronics Recycling?

"Tripper" (tripe46) 10/21/2016 at 12:04 • Filed to: None

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Just had a funny series of phone calls. We have a bunch of old equipment at work that we need to get rid of. We don’t have quite enough for a organization that takes donations to want to come and pick it up. However, it’s enough to make my our server room look like...well, your average server room but I hate disorganization almost as much as I hate holding on to old crap that isn’t car related.

So I called a disposal services company who said “oh no, we don’t take that type of stuff anymore. I’m not even sure who does.” She then gave me the number to our county’s recycling office and I called them. I asked for electronics recycling and the receptionist connected me. It was a recording that said a bunch of BS then ended with “the best course of action for electronics recycling is to contact your state senator about the lack of options for recycling.”

Are ya fuckin’ serious!? It’s been a few years since I’ve done this but apparently there is a real problem getting rid of this stuff these days. I can totally understand as the number of electronics is ever increasing and places to put them are decreasing.

Sure places like best buy and staples take one or two things at at time, but we’ve got a bunch of stuff. I’m going to write the senator, but can you guess how 99% of people are going to take that message...right in the dumpster.

JGrabowMSt > Tripper 10/21/2016 at 12:08

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What state are you in?

E90M3 > Tripper 10/21/2016 at 12:11

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Outdated computers? Call up Nibby, I’m sure he’d take it off your hands.

Roundbadge > Tripper 10/21/2016 at 12:38

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This can be terribly infuriating.

The good thing is that we actually have a company local to us that we can pay to take equipment and they will not only dispose of it responsibly (including destroying any hard drives), but they also indemnify us against any of our data falling into the wrong hands. To me, that charge is just an insurance policy against data/identity theft.

The bad thing about this is that the same company that charged us used to buy used equipment off of another guy who maintained our copiers. We wised up and started giving our equipment (minus hard drives) to the copier guy, but apparently that well dried up and the company quit paying him.

In short...responsibly disposing of computer equipment is stupidly difficult.

lone_liberal > Tripper 10/21/2016 at 12:38

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Charities like Goodwill will take stuff for electronics recycling here, in fact I just cleaned out our server room this way, but I think that’s because of a state program.

Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever > Tripper 10/21/2016 at 12:55

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On a slightly related tangent, how do we know our crap doesn’t end up getting melted with blowtorches in an open yard in China, with heavy metals and liquid waste going into the nearby river?

Watching a documentary a few years ago horrified me with respect to electronics recycling. I was ashamed that my hometown, Hong Kong, was a shipping centre for these awful schemes (admittedly a complicated problem, HK being a shipping centre for everything).

Tripper > JGrabowMSt 10/21/2016 at 13:05

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PA

Tripper > Roundbadge 10/21/2016 at 13:08

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Yea so I’ve found. We might be going two pieces at a time to best buy for a while as there is one right around the corner

Roundbadge > Tripper 10/21/2016 at 13:12

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Western PA? I may know someone for you, if so.

Tripper > Roundbadge 10/21/2016 at 13:15

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Southeastern, Philadelphia suburbs.

DC3 LS, will be perpetually replacing cars until the end of time > Tripper 10/21/2016 at 13:21

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I remember it was stupid hard to get someone to take my brake fluid. Not even lube or legit shops would take it. The land/recycle center wouldn’t and told me to take it to a shop. Luckily there was a hazardous material center on a military post I was able to take it to.

E92M3 > Tripper 10/21/2016 at 13:24

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Our city has a few electronic recycling days a year. They’ll even take old CRT monitors, inkjet printers, batteries.  At one point we were paying $50 each for a company to take and recycle CRT’s.

JGrabowMSt > Tripper 10/21/2016 at 13:28

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Could try looking into recyclers in Cherry Hill.

Tripper > E92M3 10/21/2016 at 13:36

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We used to have them. Part of the message that I listened to said that they were no longer doing those due to some state regulation changes...call your senator.

Sam > Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever 12/08/2016 at 09:28

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Everything is terrible when it comes to cheap manufacturing in China, so probably.