tvs - Page 2

Originally Posted by scrapbeast

Just totally forgot about this but the city I live in has a free once a year state funded TV recycling thing in town. So as for getting rid of them it will be a piece of cake

And no, you will be turned away in a hurry if you show up to one of our sponsored city/locality drives with a load of tubes.

Originally Posted by jimicrk

I would find a recycler before you start and even though your city has an event once a year I'll bet they want items that have not been scrapped.

I'm not trying to be a wet blanket but there are so many threads here about crt's and even more horror stories about them.

You should use the SMF search feature and read all of the crt threads and you'll see what I talking about.

I have read most of the TV threads on here. Been reading up on everything for over a month before I registered. I'm not too worried about them not taking them though. Its a small town and you'd be amazed even on garbage days if the right guy is driving the garbage truck he grabs everything including TVs. Little towns have bonuses if people know ya sometimes however the opposite can be true there as well

Originally Posted by Mudlucky

And no, you will be turned away in a hurry if you show up to one of our sponsored city/locality drives with a load of tubes.

I wouldn't bring them all in myself nor just the tubes. I put the case back on and can have family and friends bring 1-2 in each

Originally Posted by scrapbeast

I wouldn't bring them all in myself nor just the tubes. I put the case back on and can have family and friends bring 1-2 in each

One thing that many of the members try to do on this forum is encourage everyone to work in an ethical and legal manner. We do not encourage manipulating rules. It is 100% illegal for any CRT to wind up in a Wisconsin landfill. The fines for this are huge.

We do not condone skirting the rules of any local recycling event. Almost all, if not all, community recycling events now charge for TVs of any kind to be dropped off. Even if you are in a small community, someone is paying to get rid of these CRT. It is not the recycling company that accepts them. If they aren't charging the consumer personally, they are charging the locality.

Reading the forums here is awesome. I learned a lot from this forum over the last three years. But knowing your local and state laws will keep you out of serious trouble. Even in the places where the good ol' boy system still seems to be in place, it only takes one time to get caught to have more problems than any copper yolk in a TV is worth.

We will take your CRT tubes for a charge. They have to be delivered and be palletized and with pallets wrapped, or safely stacked in watermelon type gaylords for the lowest charge to you.

Originally Posted by scrapbeast

Once I have enough of the CRT tubes I'll find a recycler for them. I don't break the glass on the tubes and I store them safely.

What you are describing is known to the EPA as "speculative accumulation" and if they ever get wind of it, they can cause a world of hurt. CRT's are an EPA-regulated hazardous waste and I think their handling falls under RCRA guidelines. The slightest slip could have you owing the Feds upwards of $20K, depending on the level and severity of the offense. I believe that, to be minimally compliant, you will have to store every single TV and tube indoors, on an impermeable surface, preferably on a pallet or in a box. You may also be expected to demonstrate that no item has been in your possession for over a year so that probably means tagging and inventory controls. All of this just to deflect the most cursory state and/or federal investigation, to say nothing of what can happen if they find broken glass, leaky roofs, incomplete state recycling certification, or inadequate PPE.

While I understand your willingness/need to stay under the radar, the truth is that there are not many practical ways to do this without a warehouse. It just is not a woodshed or basement kind of operation. And once you have a warehouse, people will start asking questions, especially landlords in possession of said warehouse. Doing it outside bucks the nosy neighbor issue (if you have enough acreage) but once again, you aren't allowed to store CRT's uncovered, unfloored, or in an unwalled structure. Catch-22: Achieved.

I wish I had more constructive advice but I think this idea will never pay off for you. We just had a one-day, eight-hour free TV/computer collection and we took in 35 pallets. This is after already collecting them for the last year and a half on a daily basis, and all for free thanks to VT's rather aggressive electronics recycling arrangements. I think people are unaware of the sheer, unyielding, near-catastrophic volume of CRT's which still exist in communities, a material flow which has the potential to crush a small operator into oblivion and further complicate e-scrapping as a whole. In practically no time you can (and will) find yourself buried in tubes and unless you have about 50,000 friends, the notion of "laundering" them through intermittent collection programs won't ever pan out for you (and it will turn your friends into accomplices, at best, and likely fraud conspirators, to boot).

If you have any doubts, call your state's e-waste contractor(s) and ask them how much fun it is to deal with CRT's. They, better than anyone, can offer insight and caution.

Keep reading the threads. You'll find the articles about abandoned warehouses full of tubes. Why? Because someone thought they too, could make money. They couldn't, so they skipped out.

Pretty certain zero thought went into how CRTs would be recycled when they started making them.

Hey Scrapbeast
Where do you live? You might be able to take them to the dump for recycling if you live in California.

Here in California I don't think it's against the law to bring tvs or Monitors to the dump because we pay the recycling fee when the item is purchased. I let the person running the scale that I pick up from local business and residences. Hell some times when some idiot drops them off in a field I will stop and pick the Tv up and include it in my load to the dump.

Hey buddy, you've gotten a lot of solid advice in this thread, but a lot of it has been naysers. Let me first say, good job, and fantastic idea. You found a problem, and offered a solution. Many folks don't have the brain power to do either.

Look through my old threads on here. I ran an operation similiar to yours. I started in the bed of my truck, then a 5000 square foot shop. I, quite literally, had wall to wall tubes, stacked 2-4 high on top of each other. It was a MESS, and super over whelming. But i stuck with it.

Ask IdahoScrapper, he can attest to the shear insanity of my old operation. He helped me with a couple loads to the dump with glass, i believe. (The dump we have takes them for free, because URT buys them from them).

TL;DR Good idea buddy. We come off strong sometimes. I wouldnt say scrap the whole idea of tv's. But definately get ahold of a glass buyer (YES, they DO exist. URT is an example of one), then proceed. If one has the right connections this could be a very lucrative business.

Godspeed buddy.

Originally Posted by TheHoss

Hey buddy, you've gotten a lot of solid advice in this thread, but a lot of it has been naysers. Let me first say, good job, and fantastic idea. You found a problem, and offered a solution. Many folks don't have the brain power to do either.

Look through my old threads on here. I ran an operation similiar to yours. I started in the bed of my truck, then a 5000 square foot shop. I, quite literally, had wall to wall tubes, stacked 2-4 high on top of each other. It was a MESS, and super over whelming. But i stuck with it.

Ask IdahoScrapper, he can attest to the shear insanity of my old operation. He helped me with a couple loads to the dump with glass, i believe. (The dump we have takes them for free, because URT buys them from them).

TL;DR Good idea buddy. We come off strong sometimes. I wouldnt say scrap the whole idea of tv's. But definately get ahold of a glass buyer (YES, they DO exist. URT is an example of one), then proceed. If one has the right connections this could be a very lucrative business.

Godspeed buddy.

Thanks for being one of a few that encourage me to look into better ways of recycling the glass then being one that basically says give it up. I'm constantly looking for different outlets for the glass. Id love to find a place that would buy them here but if I get lucky enough to find a place that'll take them free or cheap enough I'm more then willing to go that route. Glad to see someone is encouraging rather then raining on another mans parade thank you for that

Well I'm just trying to get the OP to Look before he Leaps, and think about what he's going to legally do with the tubes. He found a problem but has only half a solution.

He stated that he lives in Wisconsin and 2 other members live in Wisconsin also. It appears they are very familiar with Wisconsin laws about the proper disposal of CRT's and he does not. Hopefully he will research this more and come up with a complete solution.

The state does periodically check the volumes of approved DNR drop off sites. When they find that the receiving load is say...double the usual, they will ask the people in charge to start taking plates of vehicles. Then they randomly pick the address of various registered vehicles and the DNR will use binoculars to check the property. All it will take is a tv or two that they can see...or an open garage door and you will find yourself with a $15,000 dollar dumping fine per television that they caught you with. We all hear the horror stories but I've seen what happens when guys get caught, it's literal game over, they lose their house, their entire livelihood and the state is allowed to garnish your paychecks, retirement accounts and withhold tax returns to repay fines. You have been warned of proceeding with this activity.

Wisconsin DNR doesn't play around. There's guys in jail for dumping right now.

Wow, AGW, that's some of the most vindictive use of state power I've ever read about!! Does WI state gov put that much effort into other crimes such as child porn and human trafficking...?? I expect that from the US EPA as they are scared of their own shadow when it comes to "hazards" but putting guys in prison for scrapping crts and then trying to get rid of them without dumping them in the woods seems way to excessive. Powerful politicos and/or their buddies must have family businesses that run hazardous waste businesses...

Originally Posted by jimicrk

Well I'm just trying to get the OP to Look before he Leaps, and think about what he's going to legally do with the tubes. He found a problem but has only half a solution.

He stated that he lives in Wisconsin and 2 other members live in Wisconsin also. It appears they are very familiar with Wisconsin laws about the proper disposal of CRT's and he does not. Hopefully he will research this more and come up with a complete solution.

And this is my hope as well. I hope he becomes very successful! I'd love to have a better place to take my CRT tubes.

Just for interest I scrapped a CRT board today and found 100gms of Copper wire and 230grams of aluminium heatsinks.

That's not including the transistors or the choke assembly or the messy ferrite transformer with many layers of Copper wire on it.

“There’s so much TV volume this year,” he said.

Target said televisions were a top seller with more than 3,200 units sold every minute in the hour after the store opening. Target stores opened at 6 p.m. Thanksgiving evening.

I am lucky I guess, the town here has a recycling section for everything from metal, cardboard, and electronics, including all types of TV's, so I can pick them up if I want, and dispose of them properly. I pick up for free, and have had a lot of people try to pay me, especially elderly, but I have never accepted any money. I just ask them to call me again down the road or refer me to a friend. More than a few times, I just take the TV straight to the recycling center and it never sees my garage.

Originally Posted by junksable

I am lucky I guess, the town here has a recycling section for everything from metal, cardboard, and electronics, including all types of TV's, so I can pick them up if I want, and dispose of them properly. I pick up for free, and have had a lot of people try to pay me, especially elderly, but I have never accepted any money. I just ask them to call me again down the road or refer me to a friend. More than a few times, I just take the TV straight to the recycling center and it never sees my garage.

Where is this wonderful place you speak of?