News Story on TV Recycling
 

There was a story on the local news tonight
about American Electronic Recylcers in
Sarasota, Fl., said to be one of the few TV recyclers. They take the lead, cadmium etc
and recycle it. 56 million tv's were disposed of last year and they expect almost double that this year.
It makes me wonder that if they got in any
roundies they would save them if asked.

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:dammit:The ignorance makes me angry, sad world we live in these days.....:tears:

...

I know exactly what you mean.
 

Seems like ignorance is very fashionable these days.

That's the impression I get from most people I know.

Seems that most people don't want to hear what somebody else is saying unless it is what they want to hear.

Hi Folks.

I have an agreement with the local electronic recycler. I have teached the people there how to identify a tube tv set and pleased them to telephone me when they have get one. Most of the tv sets they get are b/w mass production from the 1960s and 1970s. No interesting stuff. And if they have sometimes anything interesting, it is already molested. So, the effort to come and go does not yield a valuable result. Meanwhile I have cancelled the agreement. Too much work for nothing valuable.

On the other hand, newspaper reports result every time in getting a valuable set.

- Eckhard

Sounds like the workers in your country are much more intelligent and respectful than those I have tried to speak to here in south Florida. I was as careful as possible with my words and I do demonstrate a completely respectful way of communicating to them but it's always the same reponses of either pretending to care or more often, a show of apparently thinking there is no money in it for them.
So, I wonder if those that help you do so because they expect you will pay them well or are they simply caring and respectful people?

floridian here too. i HATE e-cycle places. btw, ortho, winter park fl, i see? i grew up in college park, just to the south of you. ever been to radio relics? i know dennis pretty well.

I absolutely dispise e-waste places and e-waste events as well as they fly right in the face of living in a free country. I think most e-waste places should be shut down and we help feed and clothe the homeless and less fortunate and give them decent homes as well instead.
E-waste places and e-waste events are a major threat to our free and democratic countries we call Canada and the United States of America-so much for the land of the free:-( The Consitution & The Bill Of Rights are under siege :-(

Hey. Let me preface this by stating that I agree, more old TVs should be saved and restored. And used. However, these facilities help more than you may think, since all the landfilled CRTs contribute to groundwater contamination. Better not to have phosphorous and lead and cadmium in the wells.

I'm sure 55.9999999999 million of those TVs had no collectible value. This is a great service that keeps millions of old TVs out of landfills but most importantly, the recycled material keeps new, non-renewable material from being used.

I see your points, but let's think about this for a moment.

If there were no such places developed, as the previous two posters said, there would be no recycling of said material. Recycling is essential to a production based economy, not only from the standpoint of not enough safe places to bury waste, but as an available source of raw materials to create new products. One glance at the current prices scrap metal brings shows the value of such an endeavor, environmental impacts aside.

Now let's turn the tables and think about legislating the recycling of said materials by the people, putting things back into use that are discarded. Sounds like a wonderful idea! But here's where capitalism comes in, and don't think this doesn't happen already.......

Let's say the manager of said recycling center takes in some "old" electronics, and among them is a McIntosh tube amp. Chances are, the manager is going to be smart enough to do his research and knows what is being disposed of. Me thinks that piece somehow escapes the big cardboard crate destined for a third-world "recycling center". In addition, center managers most likely know who will grease his palm and for what. If he doesn't, he has no desire for money and is doing his job thinking that he is doing his part to help people worldwide create jobs. Mmmmm....ya.

Now, let's say that there was a free pick from anyone through this stuff, even some kind of lottery system where everyone who wants one can get one item with a special ticket. A potential boon for the TV collector, or collector of anything, but then we get hoarding, and the centers simply become hangouts for people that fill their homes with everything from first-generation Pentium computers incapable of running even windows 98, dot matrix printers, copiers, and yes, televisions.

How many of us, if such a system were developed, would double their stash within a couple months, and most likely not stop there? I'll be the first to raise my hand.

There was a news clip recently that showed some of the stuff being recycled, and among the items was a Zenith System 3 console, an RCA Mural TV, and a Colortrak 2000. Would I have brought them home if I could have, to save them from the recycler? Maybe, but then again I pass up that stuff on a regular basis for a few bucks at thrift stores.

Think it over, as much as we may not like it, it does make sense.

When I dumped my 1989 RCA XL 100 Console...I did so at the dump....as they have a thing where homeowners can bring in ewaste to be recycled....but the limits are strict...2 CRTs...but the company will be happy to work out an expensive fee to rid the rest (as its a third party contracted by the county). We've taken 4 old TVs there...but months and months apart.

Working in the arcade business, I was for a while dealing with an e-scrap place on a regular basis. I had a lot of CRTs to rid of...somewhere around 20...plus a ton of old corroded boards. They didn't give us much of a discount till someone brought in an old pinball machine. Fixed it up for them in exchange for credit to get rid of the other CRTs we had.

They would let me stop by once in a while to root through the junk...sadly the one guy there was an old tv tech...so all the good valuable stuff disappeared before I got ahold of it. Oh well.

I have the feeling that a lot of the TVs wind up going out the back door once they get to wherever they're going, and before they're taken apart. In fact, a TV repair shop I used to work at, is now a CA-certified eWaste collector, and he calls me when there's anything cool. All I have to do is promise no to sell the item, as the serial number is sent to the State of CA, and it would be illegal for the TV to exist after the state pays the $10 for it. OR, the eWaste collector can simply swap in another TV for the one to be saved, and then the serial number of the one saved is clean.

Charles

I've put my name in with a couple local recyclers (the county program plus a guy who does it for profit). So far nothing good has come from it (a couple weeks ago the county guy sent a woman to me with an '02 Samsung!) but, hey, it could happen!

Yesterday I took a BPC lightning victim to the dump (along with a truckload of other stuff.) The man working there told me "they" wanted TVs separated from the other garbage and I should throw it in a construction dumpster he pointed out.

So when I drive over to said dumpster, all that's in the visible top layers are mattresses!

Needless to say, "e waste" isn't a big deal in Louisiana yet.

Not all E-waste recyclers are evil. A local outfit advertised this Philco 49-1240 Consolette on craigslist and I rescued it for $40. Just finished the restoration.

http://antiqueradio.org/art/Philco49-1240Finished.jpg

Yes, I left my name and contact info with the manager :)

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

These treasures were later stolen (rescued?)...
 

Last year, dropping off some bpcs at the county houeshold hazmat facility, I took the following pix. I asked about these beauties and got the dumb look and standard "nothing can leave here" drivel.

I was in last week and the guy off-loading my CRT PC monitors claimed these sets were stolen by other "customers". And they would not be putting stuff aside anymore. I carefully explained my gig and got the managers contact info, but wondering if its worth my time. I could get just as carried away like the rest of us.

Since it's not mixed in with anything, one could assume that stuff already has another intended home......I'd watch Craigslist and eBay in your area. Dollars to donuts they pop up somewhere.

hu... Me and the wife scrapped regular trash pick up in favor of driving our trash directly to the transfer station partly so we could say good bye to it personally, before it all goes to Pa. (I think) and they have a trailer where all the electronic stuff goes.... Most of it is 30" or larger CRT or 40" projection sets, portable crt sets, computers, and to date 1 stand up video game with what looked like 30 years of screen burn on it. I did take a ride over to the big recycling center over in the next county... Let me tell you I walked that building for over an hour! I saw our first color tv there, a 1976 Sears Sanyo 15", and lots of other cool toys.... And they have a little museum area for the sets, both tv's and radios they get from the 50's. I was toured around by the company, or location manager, he was really nice, they had a guy there that took some stuff apart, mixed and matched stuff to make working sets and sold them locally. They also refurb. computers, laptops, HD's etc, from companies. He was interested in having me sell HD's for them. They regularly do truckloads of stuff from all over the local tri-state area. I walked around and pointed out some collector type computer stuff they had, and they put it on ebay. I really liked all those people, and had a wonderful time. I think it all depends on how you approach the situation. I would imagine what they would like the least, would be people taking something, parting it out and returning it in condition harder for them to work with.