Doing Monitors and TV'S BIG?

Ok so I am new here. I DO NOT speak from experience.

As for monitors and TV's. It seems to be a universal problem around the e-waste communities dealing with monitors and TV's in a responsible manner.
We all know for a fact that there are companies that deal with the tubes and the plastics in monitors and TV's.
From what I can tell in my own area is that it is a matter of getting them to the people that deal with theses things.
It would seem to me if it is volume these companies are looking for I should be able to help them with that.
I have access to space to store up a huge amount of monitors and TV's.
They have spent a lot of money on the equipment to handle these things. I am not ready to buy that equipment yet.
But, it does stand to reason to me that if I were to approach them as a volume resource in my area that they would rather keep their own machinery going than to let such expensive equipment sit idle.
As time moves forward there will be less and less of these to deal with. I have amassed a lot in a few short weeks. I do know that at some point whether it is 10,000 or 100,000 the available supply will dry up or at least slow down.
I guess that I am saying that if I need more of these to make myself attractive to the bigger buyers then that is what I need to do. I am not looking to get rich off of TV's or monitors, but simply by taking them it makes my business of e-scrap more attractive to my own customers.
If I need to forgo the goodies in them to process them in a responsible manner then I will just have to make my money in the other areas of my business. I am going to be doing extensive research and get in contact with the glass and plastic recycling businesses in my own and surrounding states.
I come from a logistics back-ground so dealing with moving them in volume is not intimidating to me.
In closing I would say that I think I need to look into being the solution and not a part of the problem.
I will keep people posted as I learn more in contacting down-stream vendors.
I am going to attempt to make TV's and monitors a break-even point in my e-scrap business. I have been told that they are what will break a e-scrap business, but maybe they were just looking at is through a small window.
I would thank you for your feedback. :)

If you had a deal where for every PC tower you received you also took in a monitor then I could understand your point of view - you would make your money on the towers, then give the monitors away for free. What I wouldn't do is go all out just to get a huge pile of tvs and monitors for the sake of it.

Why put a large amount of resources into an area where your aim is to break even? My advice would be to concentrate your skills and effort into an ewaste stream that will do much better than break even.

Maybe I was not clear by saying breaking even. What I mean by that is I pay myself, my help, building expenses etc.... There is an acceptable profit margin on the other assets I acquire. The very fact that I would not CHARGE a fee for TV's and monitors makes my business more appealing to cities and communities around me as well as large businesses. In some business this is called a loss leader.

Ok, I see your point. All I would say is that the one thing you probably should determine before you start is exactly how you will dispose of the glass, and exactly how much this will cost (if anything).

I don't know what recycling CRT glass for use in CRT manufacture is like in the US, but in the UK it is not happening - simply because companies are not manufacturing CRT's any more. Nobody wants CRT's, all shops sell now are flat panels. One of the only other commercial options is sending the glass back to a lead smelter.

Good luck with you plan. Sounds like you have a great idea, but without research it may just be a bad idea. So keep doing your research and don't be afraid to let us know what you end up finding out!

As far as the supply of crt's drying up any time soon I doubt it.....I don't know the numbers of these things distributed in the U.S. but it has to be in the millions.....You figure every house had at least one and probably up to 3 or 4..............All biz, schools, goverment institutions had hundreds if not thousands of these monitors so the supply stream of these is almost endless at least for the next five years and probably closer to ten............Oh well they take the carcasses at my local dump so I get as many as I can............I usually don't waste my time picking up one or two when I go for crt's it is usually at least 50 and I handle it all by hand (SUX!!!) The reason though is the money made from these is not worth having big equipment to move this stuff around. I make a living and a pretty good one at that off mainly scapping electronics but the work is hard and the hours long!!!!

I agree mike. I just had around 100 tv's/monitors delivered to my shop and another 100 on standby, bringing my total to around 400. I am talking to a company that may buy them and I hope they do. I do have a plan B on standby(which I encourage you to do msearl3244!)

I to have just started researching CRT screens. My conversation yesterday with Dlubak glass was...I pay them 0.10 cents per pound assembled or 0.12 cents per pound just the intact tube. And yes, that was delivered to them.

Believe it or not Whm1, thats my plan B..... for now. I have some other leads if my current talks fall through.

Its been mentioned in other threads one of our members know the process to remove the funnel glass section from the clean glass. ( funnel glass is the lead bearing). I suggest you look into it if you have the space to hold tons of tvs, then you can hold tons of processed glass that its way more valuable then just holding tubes. Then you want to get into the hired help + salary, you would need 2 guys going 100 units per day (10 hour day) 5 days a week. You get 1000 units broken down in that week long period. (probably going to have to hire and train someone to separate the tube glass. From those 1000 units you can figure that you get 3-4 grand not including the glass. At 10 a hour for ur laborers they get 500 each leaving you 2-3k. Now you will also have around a ton of clean ABS and alot of glass. The glass is the make or break point. Hope you figure it all out and good luck.


Now also doing e waste as the main focus and having a 3 man crew working on CRTs constantly will be a good investment. Cheap good labor is also pretty hard to come by. Smart cheap labor is worth its weight in gold.

I agree Dunemaul, I would like to process them myself. But if this deal looks good on paper then I will do it instead. I don't even process them right now because if any of them break and it's stored improperly, I could in deep doodoo by the EPA and the IDEM. baby steps for me, man baby steps for me! lolo! Thanks for reinforcing that we can make more money by being able to do crap ourselves.

Thanks to Hoss telling me how to properly air my tubes i never run into the breakage problem anymore. Storing tubes isnt something i do, so giving advice on how to properly stack over 1000 tubes without breaking something aint for me. But i can tell you that if you were really good at jenga game back in the day then you got a good start on stacking them.

Also if you have a workspace you can seal up a section air tight just for crt disposal and get the proper fan and filtration system. Create a negative pressure environment and go to town. If you store the lead bearing glass you would have to do this anyway. a room big enough to hold 2 sealed containers (40 footers) should run you about 3-4 grand depending on the filter and fan you buy. And thats the low number if you know how to install and build everything yourself.

OK. So I have been talking to the DNR (Department of Natural Resources) here in Waterloo. In Iowa they control the recycling businesses. They told me that it acceptable to store monitors in a semi trailer. I have several old trailers anyway. If you stack 9 monitors per layer and go 5 layers high you will have 45 monitors on a pallet. A 53' trailer will hold 26 pallets going straight in with them. Doing this you will still be legal on weight. You will be able to haul 1170 monitors per load. I am going to a meeting Monday about a buyer for my monitors in bulk. I will let you folks know how that works out.

Ive looked into recycling the ABS plastic shells on the CRTs and it seems that you would need several hundred pounds in order to make a transaction, which you seem to have the capacity to do.

As for the glass lead tubes, there is an ewaste recycling company out here that is investing in a machine that separates the glass from the lead. They charge to dispose of them and then they recycle the lead and the glass, that sounds like a good deal for them.

Here is a video that shows the traditional process of recycling crts including the separating the funnel tube glass from the front glass.
CRT/Monitor Recycling - YouTube

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Originally Posted by wayne

I don't know what recycling CRT glass for use in CRT manufacture is like in the US, but in the UK it is not happening - simply because companies are not manufacturing CRT's any more. Nobody wants CRT's, all shops sell now are flat panels. One of the only other commercial options is sending the glass back to a lead smelter.

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Hey wayne it looks like you know a lot how situation looks now in UK, im interested with coils from CRT tv's/monitors and im hoping to find some good contacts with people who want to get rid of them in Ireland or UK, do you know where's best place to start ? Thank You.

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Originally Posted by Dunemaul

if you were really good at jenga game back in the day then you got a good start on stacking them.

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I was good at that game lol.. now if I had the space, the knowledge on how to receive amounts more than 2 to 4 TV's a week would be nice. but since I don't I pick up the projection TV's to pass the time but theres lots of plastic and mirrored glass/wood to dispose of an no one in site to buy that stuff.

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Originally Posted by TheRecycleGuy

I was good at that game lol.. now if I had the space, the knowledge on how to receive amounts more than 2 to 4 TV's a week would be nice. but since I don't I pick up the projection TV's to pass the time but theres lots of plastic and mirrored glass/wood to dispose of an no one in site to buy that stuff.

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Find a thrift store, an tell'm that you'll take every broken, and working tv. LOL. You'll have a bunch! An CL works for it also. It's what I do, right now I only collect from my thrift store, an previous connections when they have some. Hotels also when they do remodels, or after big storms, etc. They are out there.

Edit to add : Oh I forgot..on the wood. Try to offer it for free on Cl or whatever you want to charge if you do. It's great for random projects. I turn a projection screen tv base, into a mini table for the wife, to do her crafts on. Turned another one into a tool/whatever table for smacking things around in the shop. So now when I get'm I take'm apart carefully so I can reuse the wood as a table or new cabinet, etc. Lots of uses, just think outside the box.

Sirscrapalot - an in the morning, we can make waffles! - Donkey, from Shrek.

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Originally Posted by Sirscrapalot

Find a thrift store, an tell'm that you'll take every broken, and working tv. LOL. You'll have a bunch! An CL works for it also. It's what I do, right now I only collect from my thrift store, an previous connections when they have some. Hotels also when they do remodels, or after big storms, etc. They are out there.

Edit to add : Oh I forgot..on the wood. Try to offer it for free on Cl or whatever you want to charge if you do. It's great for random projects. I turn a projection screen tv base, into a mini table for the wife, to do her crafts on. Turned another one into a tool/whatever table for smacking things around in the shop. So now when I get'm I take'm apart carefully so I can reuse the wood as a table or new cabinet, etc. Lots of uses, just think outside the box.

Sirscrapalot - an in the morning, we can make waffles! - Donkey, from Shrek.

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actually that's good advice.. I did check on local GW. and they said check back in 3 months.. but also made contacts with local tv repair shops who do not really fix those TV's anymore so they give out my number. worked good.. as far as the projection wooden bases yes just today I left the speakers in and had a nice set of sealed speakers from another projection tv and told my friend about it, he's going to rig up an outdoor stereo slash what ever he makes from it.. I would add a cushion and make it a party chair... he wants the mirrors and frame them for deco in his house.