Responsible/Sustainable disposal

[Script]

I have been deconstructing quite a number of old PCBs lately. I always keep parts that might still be usable as replacements, for repairs or for quick ideas etc, but I was wondering how to correctly dispose of all the accumulated unusable stuff.

Said differently, I am wondering what I can do better as a consumer so that it can all be recycled more responsibly.

- Resistors, ferrite beads, unusable connectors, damaged pots etc, I used to just throw into the household trash, as I thought they are not much of an issue. And I always took apart pots, for example, and ditched the parts separated, cos I thought the processing plant would appreciate.

- But what about blown ICs ?

- And then there's the cleaned PCB itself. How can that possibly be recycled, if at all ?

- And what about capacitors ? The real issue, I think. Should they not be treated as special waste like batteries ?

//As an aside, in Japan, household trash goes into the incineration plant to create heat for the adjacent gym and swimming pool etc. I'd think they extract metal and other stuff from it before it goes into the ovens. There shouldn't be much plastic etc in it in my area, but different cities deals with their waste differently. Some cities separate plastic (or at least some of it), others don't. -- They have outstandingly good air filters here, which is why they can run incineration plants right in the middle of Greater Metropolitan Tokyo.

Either way, some plastic and other stuff always ends up in incinerators, the remains (--if not highly radioactive as in the wake of 3/11--) can be used as landfill to build airports, warehouse or factory premises etc into the sea. Is that where my electronic garbage ends up ?//

Sorry if this has been talked about before and I am too dumb to find it.

 

[Script]

Bump. Some interest but no posts.

How does everybody dispose of their old caps ? Just regular gomi (Jap. for 'garbage')?

 

[sodderboy]

Each of our countries, anyone reading this, has a different path for "e-waste". My town dump is a place where we can bring glass, plastic, metals, cardboard, used oil, fluro bulbs, lead batteries, etc.
My problem is that when I take my e-waste there, I come back with more than I brought- I usually take a bag of dry caps from re-capping projects. . . and someone dumped a digital UPS that only needs a new battery. . . or a mini Fender amp with a broken jack, waaah! it doesn't work mommie!. . . walk away from the 1 kW home receiver that just needs a re-cap dude!! Ahh, life. I e-cycle those things for myself and friends.
You must have a place where you can dispose of dead re-chargeable batteries, so start there. Japan must have a better waste system stream than we do here on Long Island.
Mike

 

[JohnRoberts]

What's a town dump? My town has a junk pickup day once a month... When I put out a pile of trash, the scavengers pick through it before it gets collected.

I just checked on the internet and there is no recycling facility in my county... The next county away has a center that accepts newspaper, plastic, and tin cans, but no glass?

I recycle my empty beer bottles by refilling them with beer.

JR

 

[Script]

My problem is that when I take my e-waste there, I come back with more than I brought

LOL. Could be me ; )

Town dump, yeah, have one around. Will try that.

Problem with pick-up bulk garbage and especially electronic garbage in Japan is that it has to be paid for -- quite heftily. (They do recycle or resell.) So better to put up e-garbage for auction as junk (works for audio gear but not for TV, PC or fridge etc) or bring to e-thrift store. But they too don't take everything and definitely not a bag full of old components...

 

[sahib]

I have been taught to recycle at a very early age. So, it is a life long habit. Here are some pictures from my recycling corner. The workshop is always stocked up with tea, coffee and biscuits. So, the biscuit tins are used for storing the screws and I have boxes of them. Seen on the left on the first picture. Two of the plastic containers on the right are jam-packed with potentiometers. Others have things like switches, joysticks, encoders, motorised hi-fi potentiometers and so on. The other two columns of boxes contain hook-up and signal wires. Note the carboard boxes in the background. All full of semiconductors. I could not find the photographs of containers that have film and electrolytic capacitors.

For obvious reasons I can not use them on production. But for DIYing they are perfectly usable. So, if somebody is DIYing something I always remind not to buy anything without checking with me.

We have a local civic amenity (dump). So, if I am dumping stuff I come back with more. Last year I picked up a Technics surround amp in mint condition. I could not believe it. In full working order but unfortunately I could not find the remote. I was ramaging through the pile but the attendant saw me and told me to beat it. Since then two solid state guitar amps. One broken and the other with faulty drive channel which I will fix at some point. Four pairs of good quality hi-fi speakers.

 

[Tubetec]

Theres a company here in Ireland that gathers old electronics from civic amenity sites , they sort through it and send off stuff thats worth salvaging or recycling . They generally dont like people taking stuff and Ive been told to sling my hook on a few ocassions , The amount of good stuff thrown away is an utter disgrace ,white goods in particular ,
politicians are making a big noise about green energy/renewables but unless we seriously curb this throwaway mentality were in big trouble with mother nature .

 

[sodderboy]

"local civic amenity" I love it! It will take me some time over coffee and doughnuts to explain that to the guys at the town dump.
Reduce, recycle, reuse, ROCK!
Mike

 

[Script]

Here are some pictures from my recycling corner.

Wow. That is some serious recycle stash. Oh, I might have something I'm looking for.

Obsolescence. Japan was on the forefront of that for long. Entire product development spread over several make update models all on one and the same PCB. Made for good easter-egging.

Over here, pick-up bulk trash has worked well as an indicator of the economy, that is how well or unwell people are off.

Around the 2000s, one could find fully functional furniture etc and audio gear being dumped for pickup : instruments, partial drum kits, amps, Hifi, TV, video players, old analog synthesizers -- heaven. Scavenging was (and still is illegal and subject to fine theoretically). But this changed around 2008/2009. Since then, all e-garbage (and almost anything else) for pickup is indeed garbage -- unusable.

It's all via auctions and thrift stores here now. Stores have two corners, one for old but still working gear including some warranty (three months or so), the other for junk explicitly. I visit very often, haven't bought a case new in years.

Civic amenity visit is on the to-do list. Wondering whether they will weigh my bag of old components to charge me

 

[pucho812]

I am lucky in l.a. we got it all. I can sell racks and other metal bits for scrap/melt and that’s if we don’t find someone to haul and reuse it. Same goes for audio gear. There have been times I found an emt on the curb or the occasional dash machine. Small parts like spent caps, etc go to our local e-waste facility. What they do from there I don’t know.
Wire gets reused as needed. There was a period where I wired in a few facilities all with recycled snakes and connectors. At no point does it ever just go in the trash to the dump.