Electronics Recycling Is A Joke! Priorities & Hypocrisy.

E-waste recycling in North America is a crooked, environmentally ignorant scam of an operation. An estimated 80% is shipped overseas to poison and pollute developing African and Asian communities. Even the Canadian EPRA E-recycling organisation has been caught shipping toxic batteries to Asia and is very secretive about its operations.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDSWGV3jGek"]Exporting Harm: The High-Tech Trashing of Asia - YouTube

 

The EPRA is responsible for charging Canadians environmental fees on electronics from $10 to over $40 on large screen TV's. This is apparently to help with the burden and recycling costs for this supposedly "non profit" organization. However, when asked about salvage access for reuse and repair purposes, they get very protective over their "burden". They come across looking like a greedy bean counting profiteering company rather than a nonprofit organisation...

Email to The EPRA:

 

EPRA recycling center caught selling donated computers:

http://www.vancouversun.com/technol...+with+recyclers+with+video/8463386/story.html

______________

Mr. George Murphy - EPRA is the "Fox in charge of the hen house"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=br0h95rCuQU"]Electronics recycling program unfair to consumers, says Murphy - YouTube

 

E-waste recycling in North America is a crooked, environmentally ignorant scam of an operation. An estimated 80% is shipped overseas to poison and pollute developing African and Asian communities. Even the Canadian EPRA E-recycling organisation has been caught shipping toxic batteries to Asia and is very secretive about its operations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yDSWGV3jGek

 

The EPRA is responsible for charging Canadians environmental fees on electronics from $10 to over $40 on large screen TV's. This is apparently to help with the burden and recycling costs for this supposedly "non profit" organization. However, when asked about salvage access for reuse and repair purposes, they get very protective over their "burden". They come across looking like a greedy bean counting profiteering company rather than a nonprofit organisation...

-


Email to The EPRA:


(To: info@recycleMYelectronics.ca)

Does this association have any stance, opinion or policy regarding salvage access to electronics drop off bins? Our scientists and teachers keep telling our kids to reuse and recycle. On the contrary, I've seen landfills with "no salvaging" and dumpsters with "no trespassing" and one very rude ERPA recycling center owner yelling at me to leave after an employee actually gave me permission to salvage.

I've dropped off dozens of electronics to this place and don't see what could possibly be wrong with pulling out the odd power adapter I might be able to use, or monitor I might be able to fix. If I can't fix it, it goes right back in the bins. It seems to me that any organisation that truly has the best interests of the environment and spirit of recycling at heart would fully support salvage access. So some things may be reused before more resources are spent recycling these electronics.

Sincerely,
A Concerned Citizen.

____________________

(fr: Gerard MacLellan <gerard.maclellan@eprassociation.ca)

Good morning,

Your recent email to our company has been sent to me and I certainly appreciate your comments on our program.

Presently our company policy does not allow the salvaging of parts or the removal of electronic equipment from our Drop-Off Centres after a consumer has handed over material to us. This restriction is also entrenched into the agreements with all our service providers.

As you can appreciate, some electronic equipment may still contain personal information after it is dropped off to our centres and EPRA has taken this position to ensure all of this equipment will go for total recycling. This is the commitment that we have made to consumers using our program. However, in our public information program we encourage consumers to look at reuse options first prior to bringing any material to our collection centres.

Finally, I regret the actions of our contracted Drop-Off Centre owner in dealing with you regarding this incident as we want all our clients to be treated respectfully. I will bring this to the attention of our operators in the next correspondence to them.

Thank you,

Gerard

Gerard MacLellan
Executive Director
Electronic Products Recycling Association
Suite 44, 201 Brownlow Avenue
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia B3B 1W2
Office 1-902-481-8228
Cell 1-902-499-6378
Fax 1-902-468-3912
www.recycleMYelectronics.ca


____________________________

(to: gerard.maclellan@eprassociation.ca)

Thank you for responding to my concerns.

Before EPRA centers were in place here, people used to discard their electronics on the curb. Mainly during spring and fall municipality programs. This was a great opportunity for people passionate about reusing and re-purposing to salvage electronic items. Now people are not permitted to curb electronics, because of your collection centers. This is very unfortunate and a step in the wrong direction as far as I'm concerned. I do not believe people curbing electronics had any concerns over personal information and it is after all, their responsibility to protect. No reasonable person should assume waste and recycling centers have priorities of information security over efficiency and environment concerns.

Printers, monitors and power supplies do not contain personal information. I know most of the computers you receive have the hard drives removed already or have their data wiped. I suspect the percentage of electronics containing personal information is extremely small. I'm positive you receive far more monitors that only need a couple capacitors replaced or printers simply low on ink. Repairing and re-purposing electronics can be far more efficient than transporting, processing, and breaking them down into raw materials. I'll bet some items like power supplies cost more to break down than the few coins worth of copper they may contain. But I'm sure you do have overall profits, just as I'm sure protecting information is just a sad excuse that helps protect those profits.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________



EPRA recycling center caught selling donated computers:

http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/profit+association+explosive+relationship+with+recyclers+with+video/8463386/story.html

-

Mr. George Murphy - EPRA is the "Fox in charge of the hen house"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=br0h95rCuQU

 

I bet 99% of the IC's in electronics could be reused on something else. I mean, only really customized chips for something super niche can't be reused on something else.

 

I've been trying to tell people for years that recycling is like stirring some beef bullion into your poop stew. It may make it a little more pallatable but it's still poop stew. If someone is really concerned about the environment and thier footprint on nature, they can change their lifestyle so they don't have to use crap that can't be reused or composted. Otherwise, it's just a bandaid on a bullet wound.....and the bandaid costs five times what it would cost to remove the bullet and sew up the hole...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rExEVZlQia4

 

Not all forms of recycling are bullshit. But for the most part, it is. Recycling metals is far more sustainable than mining raw ore. Melted down and repurposed metals maintain the same structural integrity as they did before.

Most of the time, devout recyclers do these things that make them feel good. They have no idea they're just blindly exploiting themselves to an industrial complex that wouldn't exist without taxpayer money being forked over.



When it comes to consumer electronics, it's pure bullshit that most computers don't live to be 4-5 years old before they wear out. My HP Pavilion laptop lasted 2 years before it crashed and I had to get a new one! HP can go fuck themselves.

 

Actually you can recycle electronics safely. It means being familar with the componants and the ability to safely disassemble the boards for the parts. You would be surprised much you can do with those parts.

 

most of the aluminum and copper ever mined is still in existence, same thing holds true for steel. recycling works, but people should also reduce, and reuse

 

You guys are definitely right about metals and some electronics parts. Heck, I'm homeless and I have a smal junkpile that I regularly rob resistors, fets, and caps from. It's nasty work sometimes though and overall, something I would hope would be automated if it was happening on too large of a scale. A lot of the parts can be reused but the planned obsolescence in manufacturing is a huge problem.

 

i remember when electronics could actually be worked on like that, most of the new electronics doesn't have discrete resistors and caps, all the components are so tiny and put together by robots, no human could possibly solder stuff that small, but a 10 kOhm resistor is a 10 kOhm resistor, and can be used on any circuit board that calls for a 10 kOhm resistor. most microprocessors (which are in everything) could be downcycled into some other product that calls for a microprocessor .. but instead of building a board with standard components and writing code for a general purpose chip .. they enslave people in china to manufacture a super custom chip, that really has no use except in some niche application, and i guess isn't marketable for reuse

a lot of recycling is really "downcycling" ie. the product is of lesser quality than the original material, but its still reuse, some applications dont require that like plastics that can't be reused for beverage bottles can still be used for stuff like composite plastic lumber and such

metals however can be recycled an infinite number of times and still be just as good as virgin material

 

I have to work on SMD crap all of the time and I must admit, it's getting harder. Flip glasses up, flip down, repeat process a bazillion times. I don't have a proper rework station anymore either, just a 50watt iron, so the chips are super tricky.....run a big bead all the way around them and smack the circuit board...lol If all goes well, the chip flies off!

I've got a friend in Phoenix that builds electric bikes out of junk he finds and he's probably got enough junk laying around to build a space shuttle but like you said, everything will have to be downpurposed. He's awesome! Someday when he gets around to it.... "Yep...that's an old 286 running my aquaponics pumps.."

Here's his old website:
http://electricle.blogspot.com/

 

SMD components are a nightmare to service. I was just trying to replace a mirco USB connector on a Samsung tablet, 11 SMD contacts in a 6mm wide edge, crazy.

The collection centers don't give a flying shit about all the work and engineering that goes into devices, they just found a way to get free money. Metal is as good as cash money, all they see is a box containing $3 in metals. They take the metal money and unload the toxic parts on someone else. Some electronics are a real sin to see scrapped. Flat screen TV's and monitors usually just have a bad back-light or power supply. I've saved a couple 32" TV's from getting scrapped for their $1.50's worth of metal profits. I replaced the PSU and back-light tubes with LED strips and the TV's only draw 45 watts instead of the 135 watts they used before. The LED's should also last a lifetime.