China bans toxic American computer junk

From: J.C. Wren <jcwren_at_jcwren.com>
Date: Sat Jun 8 13:03:44 2002

        I wonder what the permitting hassles, etc, would be. If you actually
listed yourself as a disposal center, you might have to get hazardous waste
permits.

        I also wonder about the economic viability of such an enterprise. People
might pay to dispose of old computers if they think they'll be recycled.
However, many consumers think because they paid $2500 for a system two years
ago that it's still worth $1000. And if a dumpster behind the Circle-K is
more convient, well, it may well wind up there.

        Once you have scrap (and have picked it clean, requiring a secondary
warehouse and museum space), can you economically separate the chaff from
the wheat? Austin Electronics has about 200 13" VGA displays in the back.
They can't toss them, and no one wants to buy them. Do you accept this kind
of material? If a person can't dispose the whole kit and kaboodle at one
shot, they're much less likely to bother with recycling.

        Do you hire cheap labor and build systems for homeless people? Strip
components and eBay them? Try to do metal separation?

        I'm not putting down the idea by any means (and I'd love to have such a
place to browse), but can one reallistically make some above a
subsistence-level enterprise out of it? Are there are cases that are
successful? What's the operational cost of such a facility? Are you
willing to ship systems? Do you have systems work shipping? I'd want to
start a business I can sooner or later oversee, and not sweat next months
building payment at the end of the month.

        --John

-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk-admin_at_classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-admin_at_classiccmp.org]On
Behalf Of Tothwolf
Sent: Saturday, June 08, 2002 13:46
To: cctalk_at_classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: China bans toxic American computer junk


On Sat, 8 Jun 2002, Joe wrote:

> But seriously, I was talking to Gary and he said that he's thinking of
> starting a computer recycling center. I'm thinking that that might not
> be a bad idea for some of us that are interested in old systems. Since
> the US will no longer be able to dump the stuff overseas, there should
> be a big demand for people/places that will accept computers and
> recycle them. In addition, we would have our pick of anything
> interesting.

I'd like to start something here in Houston, but I currently lack the
warehouse space that would be required. It might be good to have places on
both coasts and the central US. It certainly might make it easier to ship
the big-iron from one coast to the other ;)

-Toth
Received on Sat Jun 08 2002 - 13:03:44 BST