Scrapping Monitors & TV's (Plastic & Glass)

I have been scrapping electronics lately and the most common drop off items are TVs and monitors, in this switch from tubes to LCD they are very abundant and at the same time very useless to a scrapper.

This is what I get that is profitable:
-Power cord
-Circuit board
-Copper tube winding

This is what I have to dispose of which costs me nothing:
-Plastic shell
-Glass
-LCD

Cracked LCD screens must be worth something somehow!?!?

If there was a way to profit off everything that would be awesome...I heard that plastic used on all tube TVs and monitors is mandatory high temp plastic which can be valuable if I can find a buyer!

The glass I smash up into small pieces I have trash cans full of broken glass I bring to the dump...somebody must buy and melt down glass somewhere??

If anyone has suggestions on profiting from glass and plastic please pitch me your ideas.

Floyd, on the tube tv's don't forget the degaussing wire and the "silver" wire down around the tubes that has springs. The silver one is tinned copper.

Oh really? I did not know that was tinned copper I thought it was just steel banding cable since it was under load by springs, what would that go as #2 copper?

yep ; ) it's a part of the grounding strap assembly

http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/elect...ing-guide.html

This shows pretty much everything you need to know about scrapping TV's and Monitors. :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Gravitar

http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/elect...ing-guide.html

This shows pretty much everything you need to know about scrapping TV's and Monitors. :)

---

Does it show how to get somebody else to pick em up and move em for ya? : D

I don't scrap TV's and monitors because I have to pay between 5 and 10 dollars to get rid of the tubes. Goodwill won't even take a working crt monitor and Best Buy charges also.

Our local (county) recycling center charges $1 for CRTs and $5 for flat screens. I have found a place that will let me dump plastics at no charge, but it's not that close and I would still have the issue of the tubes to contend with. I'm not doing enough volume right now to justify the mileage. There is a Goodwill roughly 20 miles from me, so I plan to check with them & if they'll take them stripped, I can scheduled a drop when I am in that area anyway. The other idea I intend to test around here is what others have suggested about charging a small fee to collect them - that saves the person a trip to the center and the dump fee. I can strip the sets & take what I want, then drive them to the center and the fee is a pass through at that point. I would prefer to make sure they get handled responsibly (which I am not convinced of), but the economics just don't work for anyone where I am right now. A problem I am occasionally pondering how to solve for a future endeavor.

**edit** doesn't save them the dump fee - meant to say it saves them the trip & they would have to pay the fee anyway....

I read an article recently regarding a British company and their technology to (supposedly) effectively separate lead and glass from CRTs. Google "Nulife Glass". It appears to take a different approach from recycling CRT material to make "new" CRT devices.

There could be U.S. companies doing the same thing, I just stumbled across this in a search.

Ok, last thing and I will shut up for awhile on this .... quick google search brought up a company called Kuusakoski ... scary thing about what they do (to me, anyway) is treat the CRT material in a manner that stabilizes lead to virtually prevent leaching .... the resulting product is then approved to be used as a daily cover for municipal landfills. Wow ... don't like the sound of that. At least on the surface, I didn't dig super deep into a discussion of the technology.

Also caught a blurb about Sims Recycling that indicated they are pursuing opportunities more in line with what the British company is doing.

This (CRT disposal) is a massive problem that will have to be addressed and that should create some opportunities for scrappers. That is, as long as governments on whatever level don't step in to "fix" it .....

The bands around the yoke are stainless and usually 1 of the screws is too

Thanks everyone I should have read further for other posts.

Luckily I live 2min from the landfill and people from all around have to all but drive by my house to go to the landfill and for them its only 2min out of the way and it saves you on dumping fees for almost anything expect plastic, trash, cardboard, etc.

I can take a whole bed load of plastic to the landfill 2min away and dump it for free so that is not an issue, and they take the glass with the plastic as well for free I smash the tubes up into small pieces of glass...that is not bad right? It's just a vacuum there is no gas in there right?

With flat screens I am stuck with the LCD that as I am aware the electronics buyers do not buy as a circuit board they have what liquid crystal in them? I have a HUGE projection HD tv in my backyard someone just dropped off, the boards get pulled, the plastic plexi front goes on my greenhouse, the shell goes to the landfill and all other electronics are pulled as well for eScrap.

It's bad. You're releasing the phosphor coating into the atmosphere and the glass is leaded. You're creating greater surface area for the lead to leach out of the glass into the landfill.

I wonder if the glass they "take for free" is only bottles or other non-leaded types? I can't imagine a municipality welcoming leaded glass. I can recycle "normal" glass for free at our center, but no go on CRTs.

I get 40 cents a monitor it used to cost me to get rid of them about a year ago and that plastic does have a market it just takes a lot of looking to find a buyer. I have been saving plastic for 2 years finally found a buyer, .135 cents a pound.

Quit breaking tubes please.

The Nulife Glass recycling technology seems to be top notch and very legit. To recover 99% of glass and lead by putting it all in a furnace and treating it.

A new facility has been/ is being built in Dunkirk, NY.

Like mentioned before the best I've found out there by googling was Nulife and Kuusakoski.

I've read online that many abandoned warehouses full of tons of CRT's are being found across the US.

I used to have a recycling place that would take EVERYTHING down to bare tubes... Then they closed;(

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Scrap man

I used to have a recycling place that would take EVERYTHING down to bare tubes... Then they closed;(

---

I wonder why. ;)

If you have the room to store, save the glass from flat screens, some of the rare earth metals that make up the LCD are getting harder to find. There was a post on here some time back talking about it. I save all of mine, just waiting for the market to open. If people are having to pay for the disposal of them put up a sign in your front yard saying that you will take them for free, decent amount of metal, high and low grade boards.