Hello from England

Hi Everyone

I've been reading the forum for a few months now. I registered a few days ago, and I was determined to introduce myself before the end of the year. Well, it's 4.30pm my time, so that makes me a man of my word

I have been scrapping on and off for years, and I am familiar with aly, copper, brass, steel, motors, etc. What I had no idea about was escrap, and all I can say is that you guys and girls in the US are light years ahead of us in the UK when it comes to dealing with electronic items.

Over here, processing escrap is a game played by corporations who earn big bucks from it, and they want to keep it that way. Not only do you need a license to remove and transport any waste (whether or not it is metal) on a commercial basis in the UK, you need an extra license to deal with escrap (what we call WEEE (pronounced "wee" over here).

There isn't much stopping you collecting escrap on a small basis yourself, other than trying to find places to sell the sorted and separated items to like you have in the US. Unfortunately, if you went to one of the companies that buy quantities of boards in the UK then you would need a waste carriers license and a WEEE license before they would deal with you. Very catch 22 for the one person operator who wants to earn a realistic price for their electronic waste.

So what about sending a box of high grade processors to the US? That would be worthwhile, wouldn't it? Unfortunately you need yet another (making three in total) license to export WEEE. And every license costs plenty of money :eek:

I'm looking forward to chipping in to the threads I read where I can. This is a great forum, and it doesn't matter what side of the ocean you are from, metal is metal. Unless it's WEEE metal

Thanks everyone,

Wayne

Hi Wayne,

Where in UK are you from?

Welcome

Regards
Bally

Hi Wayne. Nice intro. Look at the buyers and sellers and one of them may be able to help you out. Best of luck.

Hi skipRAT and Ballymoss

I'm tucked away in Norfolk, which means the biggest problem is making sure I don't get carrots mixed in with my copper.

There isn't much stopping you collecting escrap on a small basis yourself, other than trying to find places to sell the sorted and separated items to like you have in the US. Unfortunately, if you went to one of the companies that buy quantities of boards in the UK then you would need a waste carriers license and a WEEE license before they would deal with you. Very catch 22 for the one person operator who wants to earn a realistic price for their electronic waste.

I send my stuff to these guys: http://www.awarefiners.co.uk/
They collect from your door for free and the cheque is on your mat in about 4 days time.

I know there are places where I can get paid more for my scrap but i don't have the minimum quantities they require.
Due to the size of my current storage area, i can only send out about 500Kg's at a time.
I'm looking into hiring a 40ft container in a secure compound not far from here to increase my loads.

Hi Ballymoss, you too Wayne. I'm another Brit on the forum, but I live in the USA at the moment. What sort of prices are you getting from that e waste site mate? Already know Mr SkipRat

Cheers
Al

the licensing requirements that you face in the EU will soon be the norm here in the states. we already have certification requirements in some states. others are voluntary at the moment. recycling credits are being required of the computer manufacturers. the computer manufacturers are already starting recycling programs. the crt market should get interesting after doe run shuts down in 2013. simply a matter of time.

the EU recycling procedures and ewaste refiners are far ahead of anything we have in the states. surprisingly, many of the boards collected in north america wind up at EU refiners.

most of the folks on this board will not believe it, but in a few years all of the ewaste recycling will be done by licensed large recyclers. you need to get licensed now before it become too difficult and too expensive. and then figure out how you are going to manage the bonds, equipment, warehouse space and the cash to run the business.

5 years from now this business will look entirely different. 20 years from now, none of us will even recognize it.

The carriers licence isnt too bad at £154 for 3 years but then you have to apply for an environmental permit if you intend on breaking down electrical items for recovery, this is a fee of £12000 + yearly subsistence fees. You can apply for a 3 year exemption for £840 but this only includes refurbishment and resale and not breakdown for recovery it is also only for up to 1000 tonnes p/a. I have spent a fair bit of time reading and re-reading hoping I can find out I am wrong, I will give them a call and let you know what I find out. -maybe Ballymoss can share some insight if he already has an environmental permit?

I only have a carriers licence.

To be honest, i only got that because i was stopped by the VOSA police for a kerbside check.
I had a transit full of PC's and when they asked what they were about, i just told them they were scrap.
When they worked out i didn't have a licence, i was slapped with a £250 fine plus costs!
I didn't even know I was supposed to have one!!

Because i only do this part time with fairly small quantities, i haven't really looked into what "other" licenses "may" be required.
This year though i want to ramp up this part time operation into something a little bit bigger so i guess hiding behind my garage door isn't going
to work for much longer.

Regards
Ballymoss

Oh I don't know. Fit a bigger garage door

Hi Ballymoss, you too Wayne. I'm another Brit on the forum, but I live in the USA at the moment. What sort of prices are you getting from that e waste site mate? Already know Mr SkipRat

Cheers
Al

Hi Al

Their prices change fairly regularly.

As harrisvh pointed out to me, you can get better prices elsewhere but, for me, the attraction of AWA is they will accept small loads (500kg's, sometimes less, depends what you have).

They will also collect from your door for free.

If you email them a photo of the scrap you want to send them, they will give you a price before you send it in.
It works for me but like i said, i want to start sending in larger loads to get the better prices elsewhere.


When i'm ready, i'm hoping someone on here can point me in the right direction.

Regards
Ballymoss

Originally Posted by wayne

Oh I don't know. Fit a bigger garage door

Haha, hadn't thought of that!

Roughly their prices seem to be 2/3 of what people here are getting.