1 August 2009

Recycling "e-waste"?

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Yes, I balk at the cost of getting rid of computer equipment in this town – I don’t mind admitting that at all.

But I am also a bit perplexed why it is proving difficult to find someone who will take my old tower and monitor gratis, with the expectation they can get the profits.

I was lead to believe there were all sorts of “goodies” inside our outdated IT bits and pieces that may be a bit of an earner?

I’ve been able to donate a couple of old mobiles via the ABC (for the Spastic Centre I think) in the past so wouldn’t there be merit in a similar scheme for ‘puters? The links I’ve found in “google” are either profit organisations (who charge about the same as the tip), or outdated.

If you’ve found a non-profit group who can help out with this issue, I’d be pleased to hear of it.

Thanks!

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the scrap man4:04 pm 06 Jul 10

There is an answer for the future of recycling e waste. the answer lies in a scheme south australia has in place for beverage containers. when a drink is purchased in s.a an additional recycling fee is added at point of sale. A fee including the costs associated with seperating and safely disposing of hazardous materials must be added to all electronic goods at time of purchase . a fee that is only redeemable by recycling the equipment at the end of its time. the lazy ppl or more affluent would not care if they redeem the refund. the less fortunate would beat down their door to do the leg work for them. it would become an all around win win win. a $0.10 refund on beverage containers sees ppl rummaging through bins to collect on the refund not redeemed by the innitial purchaser. human mind set is that we see that the container is worth ten cents to recycle not that we pay an extra ten cents when purchasing. once added to the cost of electronic goods we will only see the refund. this is everyones responsibility but unfortunately responsibilities are often shirked when void of a monetary benefit for performing them. the manufacturer must bare responsibility , the purchaser must bare responsibility and the governments of all countries must wear their share of responsibility too. unless there is a refund i can never see this happening. no one wants to pay for something once it has no use but when we want something we will pay at the beginning to have it, most of us without question.

Charity Computers have been kind enough to respond, $15 for CRT monitor only, no charge on the tower. Hopefully they can put it to good us when I drop it out.
Thanks for the discussion.

I’m surprised you’re all quick to be environmentally irresponsible. A quick google confirms there are many toxic materials in computers:

“A typical computer monitor contains lead, barium and hexavalent chromium. Other toxic ingredients include cadmium in chip resistors and semiconductors, beryllium on motherboards and connectors, and brominated flame retardants in plastic casings. 70% of lead, cadmium and mercury in landfill comes from electronic waste.”

http://www.envict.org.au/inform.php?menu=6&submenu=532&item=905

Yes, I agree governments should provide a free disposal service, they should also pass on costs to manufacturers to cover end of life disposal of their items.

Go ahead and smash up your computers – and I hope in the process you open the PSU and are hit by the lethal charge it can retain. Hahaha.

Reuse is preferrable to recycling, or disposal, just put it on ebay for 99c and free pickup.

If the govt were really serious about saving the environment, then they would have free disposal for old computers. What’s the incentive for Joe the plumber to drive all the way out to Gungahlin and paying for the privilege, versus cramming the old computer into the wheelie bin for free?

Someone (Dell?) had better have a free disposal day soon, as I’ve got a few old PCs and monitors looking for a new home – either recycling or landfill.

Lioncom at Fyshwick had a free drop-off weekend in June last year for all things computer and no longer wanted. Have no idea whether they have/are planning to do it again.

If you buy a Dell system they will recycle your old computer. Also if you have ANY Dell computer products they will recycle them (even if you’re not buying anything).

GardeningGirl2:34 pm 02 Aug 09

dvaey said :

Youd think if this stuff is nasty enough and bad for the environment, the ACT government should be encouraging us to dispose of the items properly (such as oil, etc), rather than charging per-item amounts to dispose of properly at the tip. If youve gotta pay $5 to get rid of a CRT and youve got half a dozen monitors around, what incentive is there to not toss them in regular/free garbage?

Yes, you’d think . . .

dvaey said :

This thinking seems stupid to me, if you want to encourage people to dump useless stuff away from the tip, then by all means continue charging the high tip fees. We’re not just talking $5 for a trailer load of bits here, we’re talking individual charges per computer case and per monitor.

UseFUL stuff too. Every time you buy some new electronics it comes in polystyrene which apparently is perfectly recyclable, and some would no doubt be reusable too. BUT you have to pay to have it recycled and you have to make special arrangements to take it somewhere because it can’t go in the recycling bin. So some people probably dump it and some go through the tedious effort of adding little bits to the garbage every week. Seems there could be a big depot somewhere where you could drop it off FOR FREE and people who need it for moving house or kids craft projects or whatever could help themselves, and every so often the excess could be taken to the recycling plant.

As for the old computers, you’d think even the really old ones might be useful for kids to learn the basics on in schools in the developing world. I know there’s shipping involved but no-one seems to worry about that aspect of it when it comes to shipping things HERE.

Whatever happened to that NoWaste plan. A few years ago I rang the relevant department (it might even have been to ask about what to do with my polystyrene) and the lad I spoke to suggested maybe it was a federal program as he had never heard of it. Nice job there by the government getting everybody onboard with this if their own staff haven’t heard of it. And now with the demise of Aussie Junk we’re really going backwards. A good time to invest in a garbage skip business I think.

Feathergirl said :

If some kid won’t take it and drop ot off an underpass for you – and you can’t fit it into your home bins, those CRT screens are huge – see if your work IT section are wonderful enough to take the lot and put in their junk pile for next time they have a big chuck out. Otherwise make friendly with facilities staff and sneak into works skip.

Your work IT section likely already has enough trouble disposing of old sh!t like this, without taking on more equipment to get rid of and confusing the issue with loads of equipment for disposal which doesn’t have an asset sticker… The first option (some kid dropping off an underpass) is probably the most likely if it’s left on the side of the road somewhere.

hetzjagd1 said :

Seriously please don’t throw computers and similar items out in the freaking regular garbage. Your environment and children’s children may come to appreciate it.

Addison said :

and do what with it exactly? and how do computers pollute the environment any worse than most of the other stuff we throw out?

+1. Exactly.

Gun clubs might be interested 🙂

I went for a walk the other day and saw a complete computer on the side walk with a ‘please take I’m FREE!’ sign on it, you could always try that. Lately SO many people having been doing this with all sorts of stuff around Kambah.

If some kid won’t take it and drop ot off an underpass for you – and you can’t fit it into your home bins, those CRT screens are huge – see if your work IT section are wonderful enough to take the lot and put in their junk pile for next time they have a big chuck out. Otherwise make friendly with facilities staff and sneak into works skip.

hetzjagd1 said :

Seriously please don’t throw computers and similar items out in the freaking regular garbage. Your environment and children’s children may come to appreciate it.

and do what with it exactly? and how do computers pollute the environment any worse than most of the other stuff we throw out?

Youd think if this stuff is nasty enough and bad for the environment, the ACT government should be encouraging us to dispose of the items properly (such as oil, etc), rather than charging per-item amounts to dispose of properly at the tip. If youve gotta pay $5 to get rid of a CRT and youve got half a dozen monitors around, what incentive is there to not toss them in regular/free garbage?

This thinking seems stupid to me, if you want to encourage people to dump useless stuff away from the tip, then by all means continue charging the high tip fees. We’re not just talking $5 for a trailer load of bits here, we’re talking individual charges per computer case and per monitor.

As others have pointed out, computer recyclers will take complete/(mostly)working computers, but if you simply have old cases to toss, they generally arent too interested.

Seriously please don’t throw computers and similar items out in the freaking regular garbage. Your environment and children’s children may come to appreciate it.

It’d be a fairly large PC that needed to be chopped up to fit in a wheelie bin.

Lead is mainly a problem with old CRT monitors.

the only lead is in the solder used to mount components to circuit boards. there’s nothing particularly harmful in a computer, as long as you don’t go imploding CRTs with small children around.

GardeningGirl9:43 pm 01 Aug 09

Are we really incapable of recycling our favourite toys? I’ve seen news stories about people in the developing world doing it, perhaps not in the safest most efficient way, but at least they’re having a go because they recognise the value of the raw materials. Surely we could be doing better.

Addison said :

chop it into little bits and stick in in your wheelie bin

I thought you should be careful messing with computer innards because of things like lead?

I got rid of a whole lot of old computer junk via some metal collectors. They picked up heaps of metal around my place that I had for disposal, along with my old PCs. They came to my door for free and told me, had the metal price been higher on the world market, they would even have paid me for all that junk. Unfortunately I can’t remember which service I called, but all I did was look through the yellow pages… Good luck!

+1 for the wheelie bin method. CRT monitors either give away (AllClassifieds/Freecycle) or pay the money to dispose of at the tip as they’re worthless.

Northside- if they do it again can you post here to let us know please?

grunge_hippy4:45 pm 01 Aug 09

do what my husband does…. cram it into the already full garage!!!!!!!

chop it into little bits and stick in in your wheelie bin

Obsolete equipment has costs to properly dispose of. I’ve been considering calling dell as their recycling prices seem better than local tip, and I suspect they’d have a better recycling program:

http://supportapj.dell.com/support/topics/topic.aspx/ap/shared/support/recycle/en/recycle?c=au&l=en&s=gen

Not sure how often they pickup in Canberra. Has anyone used them?

Last spring Dell had a computer recycling depot set up at ANU on a Saturday – it was open to the public and they took your e-waste for free. I’m waiting to see if they have it again before I try and dispose of my dead computers.

Dick Smith in Civic (I’ve seen them other places too, but can’t recall where) has a mobile phone recycling drop off.

Charity Computers will indeed accept (and even pick up, in my experience) your old computers at no charge. There’s been some discussions on other forums about just what they do with them. From what I can gather, they do a range of stuff from reconditioning them and sending off batches to poorer countries for use in schools, to selling reconditioned ones at relatively low prices to local low-income earners. Some people have been a little miffed at the idea of their “free donations” being sold on, but for mine if it’s a choice between that and me having to pay to get rid of the thing into landfill, it’s a no-brainer.

I emailed charity computers asking if they accept or have any suggestions for what to do with CRT monitors and never got a response. If it wasn’t a charity and out in Charnwood I’d be slightly tempted to just dump them in front of their door but I won’t.

Supposing your computer was made within the last decade, you shouldn’t have too much trouble getting someone to take it away (try freecycle and allclassifieds). CRT monitors are much harder to get rid of, primarily because with everyone switching over to LCDs, there’s heaps of them around and they’re pretty expensive to dispose of.

There is Charity Computers in Charnwood (www.charitycomputers.com), but I can’t find out from their website whether they will accept used computers for no charge. You might have to call them (6101 6931).

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