E-waste start to finish

As I mentioned in the Introductions forum, my wife and I started company for recycling e-waste. It was the right time to do so here in Indiana as the state passed a law banning electronics in landfills. So we have actually had a problem keeping up, which is a good problem to have in my opinion.

I have noticed that many have said that CRT monitors are the biggest issue with this type of company. I would agree they do create some problems. But we were lucky enough to find a place that will accept the tubes for nothing as long as they are not broken. So we strip everything off of them, including the yoke, board and the plastic and then the company will pick up the tubes when I have at least 20 of them.

When we started we decided to be a no landfill company so we even sell the plastics to a regrind company. It only brings about .10 per pound but it is still money.

The biggest problem we have would be printers...Some of them, especially the older ones, have a fair amount of steel in them, but they are a major pain to take apart. Thankfully I have a buddy that likes to hang out at the shop and likes to tear things apart for something to do.

Thus far I would have to say that this has been a great business for us. Not only do we recycle out all of the materials, we often find things that can still be used and resold for a profit.

Our first big load was an automotive factory...They had recently upgraded all of their computer systems and so on. Most of the computers were too out of date to resell but they had also upgraded their electronic time clocks...I took the older ones back to the shop and plugged them in and they worked....so we listed them on Ebay and ended up with a profit of $2100 for the time clocks alone.

Would love to hear from other e-scrappers about their experiences.

Wow. Nice work on the time clocks. I hope to hear more of your tales as tome goes on.

Thanks...It was thrilling to say the least...I was never expecting that much...I figured that if I got $20 a piece I would be pleased....But my wife, who is the company Ebay expert, said that they were very valuable. Since starting this we have gotten a few good deals...I picked up a load the other day from a small computer shop that had a laptop in it that had been dropped. It was not that great, just a Windows XP Compaq. I plugged it in and it was working so we listed it too and it sold for $60 so I was well ahead on the load right from the beginning

It is a local company out of Indianapolis....From what I understand they have one of those fancy machines that you can view on YouTube that laser cuts the tubes to seperate the two pieces and then they sell the glass to glass recyclers....I am sure that there are other steps in there but that is the condensed version I got when I asked last time I was there. They will only allow for drop-off of the tubes and will not pick them up unless you are giving them a bunch of other more valuable stuff in the process.

Originally Posted by Scrap man

Dang. I wish I had a company like that where I am.

Me and you BOTH !!

Ditto here too!

Originally Posted by ComputerScrapper

When we started we decided to be a no landfill company so we even sell the plastics to a regrind company. It only brings about .10 per pound but it is still money.

What company is this? I scrap a lot of electronics myself, and thus generate a ton of plastics that I try to recycle, but my bins fill up way too fast.

Maine Plastics...Great company to deal with...They will provide bins, trailers or whatever you happen to need.

With printers I usually just take the ink or toner out, then I whack it a few times with a sledge hammer or base ball bat, then I load them up with the rest of my shred. On the other hand, I have to give my plastic away for free because I only hold onto about 800 lbs at a time. I've called dozens of places, and the best offer I've gotten was from a small scrap yard that will let me drop it off. I just don't have enough space to work with!

I started a computer business two years ago, and was contacted by a company that said they would come out and pick up any computer scrap I had. I've been pretty happy because it has just been an extra $45 or so a month, but now that I've started researching scrapping I thing what I've been giving him is worth three times as much.

Luckily I have been researching this lately and have been saving everything of value (processors, aluminum, ram etc) and then just send the cases and base motherboards away. I clipped the gold fingers off the last load, and asked him if his prices would change if I did that, and he said they were basically worthless without the fingers.

I'm pretty sure that I'm ready to move away from this scrap yard, but I'm not having good luck since the local yards don't specialize in electronics. There are sites online that say 'send us your RAM, gold fingers etc and we'll send you cash!' but I'm not really trusting of those since there is no up front price disclosure.

I sent you an email ComputerScrapper, it would be great to get a reference for a good company to work with.

My town doesn't really get into computer scrap, which is odd. I am actually limited to only two pc towers in each load I take in. This is at both scrap yards in a 40 mile radius of me. I would be interested in getting in touch with you to set up something. I have a friend who has a local pc repair business and while he gives me decent scrap, it tends to sit in my garage and pile up, and over time I slowly bring it in. Kind of a pointless endeavor at the moment.

I'm surprised and pleased that Americans can make a living doing reputable recycling. Thank you for giving it a shot.

well actually Im not, been scrping for a few years, but getting too old to handle the auto/steel stuff any more so I have decided to go to e scrap. So that sets me back to the noob situation. As such I have a gajillion questions, I know nothing about electronics components. I recognise copper, aluminium tin, but the rest is martian to me. where is the best plce to learn about e cycling. and scrap prices of e scrap. Example I nearly threw away about 100# of trasnsformers untill I happened to see the glint of copper in a broken one. I want to of course be able to sort e scrap in the most profitable way.

PS. so glad I found this forum have read it all, and love it thanks all for your input. Im starting from scratch at 67

thanks looks helpfull

What are the cylinder objects that are all over the motherboard? The little barrel things? I know they are non magnetic most of the time. Also what is the liquid stuff found in some if you break open?

Originally Posted by ComputerScrapper

Maine Plastics...Great company to deal with...They will provide bins, trailers or whatever you happen to need.

I'll take your plastic and pay for shipping if its in eastern US.