electronics recycling options

[Eric P. S. Baumer]

I've recently come across two new (to me, at least) methods of
electronics recycling, and I thought members of this group (1) might
like to know about them and (2) might be a bit more knowledgeable than I
about the specific benefits and drawbacks of each.

USPS -
http://unclutterer.com/2009/11/28/recycle-small-electronics-for-free-through-the-usps/
apparently, you can ship electronics for free to the USPS, and they
apparently pass them off to an electronics recycling/disposal company.

gazelle.com - they seem to buy used electronics, which they then reuse,
repair, scrap for parts, or recycle.

anybody have any thoughts or more info about either of these? I've also
used freecycle in the past, which is great, but you can't always find
takers for your old stuff.

~Eric

[Mitchell Gass]

At 04:34 PM 11/29/2009, Eric Baumer wrote:
>I've recently come across two new (to me, at least) methods of

>electronics recycling...

Eric,

Here in Berkeley, we have the Alameda County Computer Resource Center

http://www.accrc.org/

which states that

"...our electronics are NOT exported for treatment in countries
with low environmental standards. Instead we send all our
unrefurbishable electroncs to a bay area metals refinery which
processes scrap electronics by shredding and separating the
components, ferrous metals (steel), copper and precious metals,
aluminum, and plastic. The steel and aluminum are recycled as metals,
the plastic is recycled as plastic, and the copper and precious
metals are sampled, prepared, and packaged for shipment to a primary
copper smelter."

You might check to see if there's an organization like it near you.
The ACCRC takes items that are quite a bit larger than will fit in
the USPS bags, such as old printers.

Best,

Mitchell Gass
uLab | PDA: Learning from Users | Designing with Users
Berkeley, CA 94707 USA
+1 510 525-6864 office
+1 415 637-6552 mobile
+1 510 525-4246 fax
http://www.participatorydesign.com/

[varun khanduja]

Hello,

The business model of the recycling companies cannot survive if they don't export for treatment in countries with low environmental standards like India and china. Recently I saw a report on a canadian news channel( CBS I guess), which clearly shows that companies in US and canada which clearly advertise like the above mentioned company in reality export it to provinces like Guiyu in China or Gujrat ( India) or elsewhere in Congo disguising it with other forms of shipment. 

Long story short all the companies giving an impression to the western markets that they are doing a eco-friendly job by not sending to countries with low environmental standards just have these catchy words on their website and try to mask the reality. 

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[Paul Teehan]

Hello, let me briefly introduce myself, I'm a PhD student studying
technology and environment at the University of British Columbia and I
just found this group and joined the other day.

I can speak a little bit to this topic. There have been many examples
of shady companies who stealth-export overseas but it is not 100%. A
good authority on this topic is the Basel Action Network (ban.org), a
non-profit dedicated to stopping export of toxic waste, who have done
a lot to raise awareness about e-waste and the situation with Guiyu.
They've developed a recycler certification program called
"e-Stewards"; you can be fairly confident that the certified recyclers
are not exporting overseas.
http://www.e-stewards.org/local_estewards.html

Best

Paul Teehan
PhD student, Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

[carl myhill]

Perhaps another angle on this is to look at repairing electrical equipment and using it for longer.

I have been surprised at how easy it is to buy new knobs and dials for things like microwaves and new parts for fridge freezers etc. These things are often identical to the original parts and the repairs are often very simple.

I recall a physics prof went to check out discarded electrical equipment at a local dump. He found 70% of things has very small problems, like blown fuses.

So, repair and re-use is probably well worth thinking about too. My TV is currently faulty, I shall repair it rather than replace it! Such repairs also provide employment for people too!

Cheers

Carl

[Tom Igoe]

Repair and reuse is a good idea, but it doesn't scale up to solve the problem. The recycling industry isn't clean, but it does keep some of the junk out of the landfills -- or worse. Watchdog groups like Basel Action Network are an essential component to that.

What I'd like to see more of is cooperation between manufacturers and recyclers. One of the things that makes it expensive to recycle goods safely is not knowing what's in them. Because knowing what's in them is intellectual property of the manufacturers, it's not easy to find out. Development of a standard way of publishing a list of ingredients, or dismantling instructions, would be handy. Any thoughts on how to do it?

I know there are plenty of roadblocks to this. I've investigated most of them. So if you bring up a roadblock, please propose a way around it too....
t.