Electronic recyclers : (

[Retro in RI]

Kind of in the vein of the "Stop appliance genocide" thread.

I saw a announcement in the local free paper about a free electronics recycling program going on for a few hours today. I figured it was state run and that I'd get there and hang out for a while trying to intercept anything interesting before it met it's demise. I showed up and found out it was a private recycler, parked at the curb with a box truck. People were driving up and handing him their stuff, he'd cut the cord and hand it to his assistant in the truck. I asked him if he ever gets any 30 plus year old stuff. "Yup, all the time. . .consoles, lot's of 9" too etc." I told him what I'd be interested in and asked what it'd be worth for hime to hold that sort of thing and call me. He said he just recycles, he didn't resell, refurbish etc.

Now, I didn't stick around cuz I figured he'd get pissed if I disrupted his business and I didn't really want to see anything interesting get "slaughtered".

But I don't get it. Lets say it takes him an hour to dismantle an old Zenith, RCA or whatever, and he gets $20 for the parts/materials. Wouldn't it be easier to pick up the phone and give me the $20 for the tv intact and save the hour labor??? Then I could either use it myself, pass it along to you guys etc.

Al