- Scales, calling on scrap yards
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
I just sold my first load of e-waste. I’m very excited. I would love to start calling on the local yards to see if they will sell to me. I only know of one yard in my area that buys e-waste and their pricing is insulting.Does anyone have any advice on how to get your foot in the door buying from a Scrap Yard? Also I have no scale. I am looking for a scale for small weight items. Any recommendations? Thanks guys.
Taking a vacation
Dream on grasshopper, as you recently discovered electronic waste is a rather lucrative business and no yard is going to jeopardise having their EPA certification revoked for failing to follow audit rules.Originally Posted by carolinajunkman
You want to be a player then become a certified buyer and play by the rules set out by the EPA.
You can start your journey here, https://www.epa.gov/smm-electronics/...nics-recyclers
Information for Recyclers
e-Stewards certification is the highest e-waste recycling certification in the world. Grow your business, clientele, and community support by getting certified to the only standard that follows all international and local e-waste laws. Enterprises are asking for the best in their asset disposition. Answer them by being e-Stewards certified. Stay informed on industry changes and the latest certified e-Stewards with our newsletter. Sign up now!
R2 Certification R2 Certification : R2Expert
The R2 Practices establish requirements that an organization must meet in order to handle electronic waste responsibly. The topics covered in the R2 Practices include the proper management of environmental and OH&S issues using an EHS management system, proper selection and management of downstream vendors, use of generally-accepted data destruction practices, safe storage practices, a functioning security program and demonstration of financial responsibility. One of the requirements in the R2 Practices is that the recycler must obtain a certification from an Accredited Certification Body.
Last edited by Proton; 07-29-2018 at 11:41 AM.
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Here's an interactive global map of certified recyclers.
https://epa.maps.arcgis.com/home/web...6.5994,57.2524
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Be prepared to compete with Simms Recycling Solutions who also have a precious metals refinery specialising in e-waste.
https://www.simsrecycling.com/recycle/refining/
https://epa.maps.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=be7cf61b7acd420cb7f427d561f96fd d&extent=-141.2089,7.717,-52.5273,55.8787
Last edited by Proton; 07-29-2018 at 12:22 PM.
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What is the high end you would need the scale to measure?
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Legal for Trade Scales
Adam Equipment offers scales and balances that have been approved by NMI, EU, NRCS, and NTEP for use in trade. Businesses offering goods for sale by weight are required to use approved scales to ensure that consumers are receiving exactly what they pay for. That includes establishments that sell food and alcohol, produce, livestock feed, firewood, liquid fuel, landscaping materials, precious metals and stones, mechanical and construction parts, and prepackaged products .
Adam offers approved scales in a selection of capacities, readabilities and stainless steel pan sizes. Designed for easy cleanup, IP66-rated approved scales are well-suited for applications requiring washdown capabilities.
Approved bench scales can weigh and count manufactured parts or pieces of candy, and can be used to measure bulk spices. Facilities that require the portability of a bench scale include hardware stores, farms and packhouses.
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It's not hard.....Have had mixed luck buying from yards......Usually you will want to already have a working relationship with them........Any Joe Blow off the streets can print a business card and unless his prices are far above market value will probably just get standard answer (we don't sale to public)....Even if your prices are off the chart they probably will not sell to you unless you already know them......All states are regulated differently.....Here in the south there is little regulation on buying and selling small amounts of computers.......I can get on internet and within a couple 100 miles any way can buy literally 1000's of computer (No license needed just cold hard cash).....As long as my items are secured on pallet properly I do not need a "Hazmat" certificate to ship ewaste......If you see some stuff you would like to buy just speak up.....The worst they can do is become slightly irritated and say NO......Hope this helps and good luck
BUYING ALL COMPUTER SCRAP WORKING OR NOT
CHECK OUT MY BUYERS THREAD http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/scrap...nic-scrap.html
https://getjunk.net/Knox-County-TN-0...Recycling.html
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Also if you already at the yard you don't need your own scale just use theirs
Mikeinreco gives good advice. Start with a yard you already go to and ask them if they sell to the public. If so see what they have that you want and make an offer on it. If your price works for them you're good. If not like mikeinreco said they'll just say no. Not a big deal.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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yes..just ask- but do it politely.
and dont give up if one yard says no- try others.
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Circuit board components are attached via wave soldering, eventually the solder becomes contaminated with enough gold that it no longer meets the requirements asked of it. With fresh solder passing over the boards in a wave there would be little to no gold present as the day wears on the solder attached to the boards will itself now contain gold.
The gold in the solder would have come from those beautiful gold plated finders, pin connectors etc.
Here's an interesting tid bit that I recently came across in my research for electro-winning the tin from waste solder, much to my surprise that very waste solder contains a lot of gold.
Say that your one ton of scrap solder hit the high limits with 175 tr ounces of gold, you would be looking at $214,036.00 USD. Enough for me to pay off my mortage.
For several years, the Bureau of Mines has been actively involved in developing techniques for recovering and recycling metals and alloys from industrial scrap, including waste materials generated by the electronics industry.
Among the latter materials is tin-lead solder that has become contaminated with gold and other impurities to a point where it no longer has the physical properties requisite for use in fabricating circuit boards or other electronic components.
These solders are nominally 60-40 tin-lead mixtures containing 50 to 175 oz. gold per ton, and other major impurities such as Ag, Sb, Cu, and Fe.
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Last edited by Proton; 07-29-2018 at 04:48 PM.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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The initial rush you get with e waste is great but there's quite a bit of detail to it. There's a lot to learn. The margins of profitability on some items are pretty thin so you need to keep close track of your expenses and the amount of time you're putting into it.
Start with a digital weigh scale that goes up to about 100 lbs. You can get em' on Amazon or ebay for around 30.00 - 50.00$
The nearest yard to me is about a 50 mile run. Last time i was up ... they were paying about .30 / lb for " Computer Green Boards ". That's actually quite reasonable ... all things considered.
I got talking with the buyer there and they really don't know much about e waste. If it's green on both sides they throw it into a gaylord and call it good. When the gaylord is full they ship it out and somebody else has to deal with sorting the boards. There's minimal effort on their part. It's not a bad deal for them.
I figured that i would have to sweeten the deal in order to persuade them to sell to me instead but the devil is in the details.
With permission ... i poked around the gaylord a bit. True enough ... there was some nice telecom grade stuff in there but also a lot of low grade stuff that wasn't worth much more than the .30 cents/lb they were paying for it. Average it all out and the gaylord might have been worth .80 cents a pound. Deduct .20 cents a pound for shipping and they net somewhere around .60 cents a pound when they sell ?
Figure that you would have to offer somewhere around .65 cents a pound to get them interested ?
That's a very thin margin of profitability. You could easily lose your shirt on that one if you didn't know what you were doing.
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hills is right on this. I don't think my yard sells to the public, but I haven't really asked. I did inquire one time about them holding computers for me to come pick up, but they said they don't have the space. (Huge scrap yard, with not a lot of material taking up space so I don't know what they're talking about, but not my place.) I might see if I could offer to pay a little above scrap steel for the computers, or just spend a little time there and only take what I want from the computers- mobo, ram, HDD, CD/DVD, slot cards, etc. But I have my doubts at this yard. I know the people there fairly well, (which I suppose is a good start) but they deal with a lot of people so it might not be the best situation for me. And besides, they are the only yard around in my area that I know of. Definitely check other yards if you have others, and see if they might work a deal with you. It helps to be very reliable and offer good prices.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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There are a couple of other factors in the mix .
Let's say that the yard starts selling to you and you hit your stride with e-waste. The business grows and now you're not just buying from them but from the general public as well. Now they've created their own competition ! A savvy business person has to think about protecting their territory.
The other thing is that you really ought to have a fair amount of cash on hand before you talk to any yard about striking a deal. That way ... they know you're solid and you're ready to follow through on your end of the deal with no questions asked.You probably ought to have somewhere around 500.00 - 2,000.00 cash on hand depending on what you're buying ?
It might be better to start small with shipping out a number of e-waste loads. It would give you a chance to learn more about the trade before you get into buying.
Also ... take the profits from you make from the e-waste loads and squirrel them away for the day that you're ready to start buying. If you keep the e-waste money separate from everything else in your life ... you won't be out all that much if you make an error in judgement and come up on the losing end of a deal. If everything does go well, then re-investing your profits to grow your business is almost always a good idea.
Either way ... it will work out allright.
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