G'day

Hello scappers worldwide,

Just discovered this forum, and because I'm actively involved in ewaste scrapping,
I thought I'd join and say hello, and tell a little of what I do.

I belong to a group called The Wanneroo Community Men's Shed - wcmenshed.org,
( bunch of old farts) and we refurbish PCs donated by local government, schools,
other organisations etc.

Our prime objective is to provide licensed, working computers to needy people in the
community who qualify. We install a new O/S only on suitable PCs. This leaves us with
varying numbers of PCs and other electronic equipment which is not reuseable. My
now deceased father was an avid recycler, spending Saturdays and Sundays in his
shed dismantling all sorts of stuff and separating it into piles in readiness for the
scrapman.

That model has become our group's saviour as far as ewaste is concerned. We now scrap
down to the last screw, including hard disk drives, and until recently we dismantled even
floppy and optical drives etc.

The whole operation is bringing in some much needed funds, but that is secondary to
the fun and joy our members have in breaking down this ewaste. I think subconciously
they enjoy the dismantling process knowing full well that the gear never needs to be
reassembled. We have yet to take the step to finness our operation, ie., separate the
different CPU types etc., but we do press copper cores from aluminium heat sinks,
and some guys strip wire from transformers. All cables are "topped and tailed" and
separated too. Different scrap dealers have been instrumental in providing advice
such as removing batteries from mainboards etc., which enhances their value.

We are currently looking at ways of crushing the PC cases which are too voluminous
to make it worthwhile to take a load to our local scrap depot. One device we have
seen is a wool (bale) press which the owner has tested by crushing a 44 gallon steel
drum. His asking price is a little out of our range at the moment, so we will continue
to accumulate the cases. The other problem is disposal of plastic. We have so far not
found anyone who will take it even for free, and we accumulate several big bulker bags
per month.

Scrapping is viable and works for our group because our members give freely of their
time in exchange for the cameradery they enjoy, and the knowledge that they are
doing something for the environment which is more than lip service.

Anyone reading this is welcome to contact me with suggestions and comments.



Cheers

Another approach that is minimalist would be to take a zipcut or a plasma cutter to the computer cases. Cut them so that all you have is flat pieces. This allows you to make a denser pile. This might work well for your group since you have lots of free labor.

Jon.

Originally Posted by miked

Welcome to the forum. I want to address only the one area, the scrap empty towers. How many do you have, how far to the scrap yard, what vehicles do you have on hand to move them.

The reason I ask is because in my mind purchasing a crushing machine seems excessively expensive unless you have very large amounts of towers to process and a long distance to travel to the scrap yard. If you need the crush them for a good enough reason you could re-purpose a log splitter or make one with a hydrophilic pump and cylinder. Best of luck and we do have other members from you neck of the woods. Mike

-----------------

Thanks for the welcome gents.
We did purchase an electric log splitter, but the small surface area of the jaws allowed the cases to curl around them and make them difficult to remove. Larger jaw plates were welded on but they are still not sufficiently large to overcome this curling problem. We need to redesign the plates to prevent this from occurring.

We delivered one load of uncrushed cases using a 2 tonner fitted with 1.8m (6') hungry boards loaded to overflowing. The trip was 9kms (5.5 miles) one way. The rate was $95 tonne and we got $60 for our troubles. So our load was about 3/4 of a tonne, and we were charged a "waste" levy of 12% (around $9.50). Obviously a 2 tonne load would be a far better deal ($167.20). The second hand wool bale press is priced at $1000 so it would take around 6 loads to pay for itself, plus electricity and fuel say 7 x 2 tonne loads. We are leaning towards buying it.

Cheers

Hi, I'd go for another scrap yard, that waste levy sounds like sims metal?
there must be other scrap yards near by, the price of scrap steel should be
$140 tonne minimum and no waste levy.

the energy you would waste to squash 'em up wouldn't pay, your almost 50% better off straight up going to another yard anyway.
why not just stack empty towers and use them as small steel bins?
all the bits n pieces get stuffed into towers, so when full, you screw the side back on and you got a solid 20kg package.

G'day weeeben,

The waste levy is renamed from the (WA?) government introduced Landfill Levy. Sims charges it on every kg of ferrous and mixed metal scrap that comes over their weighbridge.
Sims is now - apparently - the largest scrap dealer in Australia, and one of only a handfull - if that - Oz wide who export. That means that all the smaller operators have to kowtow
to Sims who is their buyer. I have gotten much better prices from Sims than the small operator. Its a bit like Bunnings in reverse. Of course Bunnings have the lowest prices,
especially when they're the only price in town. And when the smaller scrap operators close because of lack of profitability, the only price in town will come crashing down. That
won't be a good look for the government of the day. Verge scrounging will die because it won't be worth it. Councils will then have to do the collecting for the big boy(s) who,
for good measure, will charge council for receival of the fridges, washers, bicycle frames etc. I could go on.

Got a bit sidetracked there. I'm going to the Shed today and will pass on your suggestion to fill the cases. Good idea. Thanks.

Cheers

yeah sims is huge, and that's why they charge the levy, they don't need the small stuff.
the levy is just a sims thing, nothing to do with the govt'
i'm not sure how you get better prices from sims when pressing steel is like $80 tonne with the levy.
as I said steel is $140 tonne anywhere I look.

Welcome to the forum Scrappa2.
I scrap more PC towers than anything. My shop isn't that big and right now I have about 25 empty PC cases stacked neatly to one side. Any metal from power supplies, CD or floppy drives are put back in an empty case. Any pieces of metal that's small enough to fall through the holes including screws are put in a plastic bag and put in the case also. I have about 10 PC cases now that are full of scrap metal. They weigh between 35 and 70 pounds each and fit really nice in the back of my truck.

Welcome to the forums from a sandbar off the coast of NC, Scrappa2.

Filling up the computer cases is a good idea, an one I use also.

Sucks Sims is being allowed rule the roost over there so to speak.

Wish ya much luck, an as others said we got a few folks from your corner of the world here on the forums.

An stop drinking warm beer! ( Running joke tween me an the kiwi )

Sirscrapalot - Yeeeeep.

Hello from Florida!