How to dispose e-waste

Thread Starter

abramm

Joined Jul 5, 2018
0
Hi all,

How do you all dispose your e-waste? I am moving in to a new home. So have been cleaning up and clearing my old unused stuffs. There are items like an old pc, a dvd player and a mobile phone. I really have no idea how to dispose it. My friend shared this article with me, https://junkit.ca/blog/5-tips-disposing-e-waste/, which I found helpful.
They are sharing some useful tips. Do you have anything to suggest?

Looking forward to your replies.
Thanks.
 

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
18,089
Hi all,

How do you all dispose your e-waste? I am moving in to a new home. So have been cleaning up and clearing my old unused stuffs. There are items like an old pc, a dvd player and a mobile phone. I really have no idea how to dispose it. My friend shared this article with me, https://junkit.ca/blog/5-tips-disposing-e-waste/, which I found helpful.
They are sharing some useful tips. Do you have anything to suggest?

Looking forward to your replies.
Thanks.
In my region, it's a challenge. There was a gas station in town that placed a container (I mean a big 20' shipping container) in their parking lot and this was the one spot in the region that people could come to any time and unload their old electronics. The container was always full and despite the signs, always had a pile of TVs, printers, etc. sitting next to it. For whatever reason (I imagine the gas station grew tired of it), that's gone and now the only place you can dump stuff is .. the county dump. They have limited hours, so it's a big pain.

Point is, you can usually google around and find such a place in your area. It takes some effort.

I'll add that seeing what other people were throwing out was life-changing. It taught me that my junk pile was ... truly junk. The stuff in the e-waste container was far newer and better than the old crap I had at home.
 

BR-549

Joined Sep 22, 2013
4,928
The only safe way to dispose of it, is to melt it down to elements and confine and recover. Some think money can be made from this.

All other forms of any/all disposal, will end up in the ground water.

This is our current policy....and for many decades. It's not talked about. Every landfill is a love canal.

Every landfill has groundwater testing wells all around perimeter, tested regularly. See if you can find some results. This was much worse in the past. And there are breaches all the time. A big business now......extracting groundwater around such sites and treating the groundwater and soil. Any closed landfill will have wells around it to watch. The old fills are the worse.

All waste should be incinerated. We have the tech now, and could make real money. Privatize it. Get paid for your trash. Your waste is young coal. Lot's of energy....just not dense.
 

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
18,089
Most cities have e-waste drop off centres.
Here is an example:
LOL, that cracks me up. The comparable map for my region is completely blank. Even the one place I know of doesn't show. Like I said, it's tough around here. Any unguarded dumpster is full of CRTs because it costs money to have them hauled away from your home.
 

mcgyvr

Joined Oct 15, 2009
5,394
Our local dump has a whole section just for "electronics,etc...".. Everything from vacuum cleaners to dvd players to gaming consoles to tvs to light fixtures,etc..
Basically If it carries "electricity" it goes there..

Where they take it from there is anyones guess..
 

ericgibbs

Joined Jan 29, 2010
21,395
I just trow it in the garbage can. Big industry makes a mess from this world. My little waste would only add a micro percentage.
Sameer Miranda
hi,
It sounds like a business opportunity to me, start your own e-waste recycling centre.
Be selective in what you accept.
E
 

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
18,089
hi,
It sounds like a business opportunity to me, start your own e-waste recycling centre.
Be selective in what you accept.
E
I think the bigger opportunity would be a company that collects stuff and drops it off at a partnered central recycling facility. Kind of like the metal scrappers you see driving around on trash day but a little more professional. You could probably visit small towns on a published schedule, once a month or so, and collect whatever has accumulated over that time. I believe you could get paid by the municipalities you collect in and maybe by the recycler as well. You might even get electronics manufacturers to participate. Big companies like Apple, Sony et al are trying to deal with the issue.

Could be an easy, low capital, "instant" business to put yourself in. You might even be able to pay landscapers to collect stuff to bring you. They're already out driving around in trucks with low-wage laborers to hoist those old TVs. Hmmm...
 

Glenn Holland

Joined Dec 26, 2014
703
Someone needs to develop a "micro black hole" (or a neutron star) where you could dump any kind of waste and it would be "deconstituted" into sub atomic particles. After the deconstitution cycle is completed, a Micro Big Bang cycle spews out the raw particles which then condense into new atoms and molecules. :)
 
Top