http://www.ohiodropoff.com handles E-waste. I called them and grilled
them on their foreign shipping policies, recycling methods, etc. and
they at least seem to be fairly legit. And they'll be mostly free for
what we have.
If we felt like lugging stuff to Columbus (I don't) we might actually
be able to get a little money for a lot of it.
They have a local drop-off location in Cincinnati:
I spoke with Debbie at Compton Recycling today. They are normally
open till 2pm on Saturday but will stay open a little later if we call
them in advance. They will take all of our circuit boards, computer
cards, lead-acid UPS batteries, lithium batteries, LCDs, mercury
containing lamps for FREE. They also pay for non-ferrous metals
(Aluminum, copper, brass). They DO NOT pay for iron/ferrous metals
but they will take them for free as a curtosey. They charge $3 per
CRT to take CRTs.
I volunteer to drag a carload of stuff up Saturday.
Perhaps we should try to sort ferrous from non-ferrous, take the iron
to our neighbors/landlords?
Thanks for sorting that out for us. It's good information to be aware
of considering the amount of junk we have.
Last time we separated out much junk, we did try to separate metals a
bit, but mostly just isolating any copper from the metal scrap. Would
it be a suitable process to find some magnets (I'm sure we've got
plenty of hard drive magnets floating around) and use this to help
separate out the ferrous stuff for those of us like myself who really
can't tell metals apart by looking at them?
Well, the obvious ferrous metal was separated out, I typically go as far as possible sorting the resulting components. When I am scrapping something at the hackerspace these are the guidelines I typically follow:
What I try to salvage for the group:
Screws, nuts, and bolts. These get sorted into several categories:
Course computer screws
Fine computers screws
Standoffs
Thumbscrews
The ubiquitous “Other”- Hard drives > 40 Gigs (maybe we should make this even higher?)
Fans
Heatsinks (only if the heatsinks are reasonably easy to remove and look like they can be re-used)
Large, flat pieces of metal that we can use for future projects, sometimes the computer case doors fit this.
“Interesting” components. This varies from 8-segment displays, power jacks, switches, thermal sensors, anything that I think is “Interesting” goes in a separate container.- What I separate for recycling & disposal:
All metal I can remove through skill or force. This is about 97% steel, 2.7% aluminum, and 0.3% copper (to just make up numbers) This includes but is not limited to:
Computer cases
Power supply casing
internal components metal casing.
Basically any metal that I can separate out from the other components.- I do not know of any place that takes the plastic casing from computers and components, so it typically gets separated out and then disposed of in the dumpster out back.
Circuit boards & assorted electrical components. These are usually put in a box next to the back door of the hackerspace. As of right now I think we have about 4x Rendezvous boxes full of these items. These have been piling up for the last year and a half waiting for a plan to be developed. However, if you think of how many computers we have scrapped, the fact that we only have about 4 boxes worth of scrap left and have been paid a good amount for the scrap steel and copper is kind of impressive.
We have only really done one “Junk Day” so far, but I think it might behoove us to come up with a bit more of a plan or schedule for the day. Or perhaps just a list of tasks that need to get done.
My plans are to organize the shelves in 3C, clear out the “Purgatory” shelves of any items that are still there from the last junk day (I will be dropping off items that look like they work at Goodwill on my way home), and move my Senior Design router project to a location that takes up less valuable floor space.
Should we plan on getting rid of any of the mame cabinets? Or at least put word out once again that they are free to a good home? Scratch that, any home.
I believe there are 4 arcade cabinets in the space right now actually:
Raffled off at our open house, it is mostly finished I believe. I think Craig knows more about what is going on with this one. This is the smaller one with the “Hive13” marquee on top of it.
Craig was working on one for the group to have at the space. This is the large one with the “Hive13” marquee on top of it.
PlayerTwo wanted the monitor out of the one that still has an “out” label on it, but the frame is free to a good home (I think)
Deckmaster (Nate, who moved back to Seattle) was working on restoring the one against the wall next to the purgatory zone. Before he left he said we could do what we wanted with it.
There is also a standard cabinet that I think Chris Anderson wanted, that needs to leave. We could keep #1 & #2 (at least until #1 is done) and #2 would be nice if I can start working on it again… I was planning on it before spring but it hasn’t happened yet. I was going to take the money from my class to buy the RGB LED button lights for it but now it may go to sumobot stuff