Recycling Computers

farquarpigmix

Are the above worth anything if you take enough to the scrap people? I mean they are full of metal, power supply units, motherboards, processors etc. Has anyone done this?

Regards
Farquar

TwistedPsycho

Depends how old they are, you will probably get more from e-bay TBH.

newsseller12

Yes if you take the time to break down into individual components and dispose of the junk.
Only really worth it in big quantites though.
Have a look on youtube how its done

schneckster

Bad idea to attempt it at home. Electronic boards may be full of scrap metals, a lot of it precious, but they are also full of toxic materials. To get the metals usually requires either heat or chemicals. Even though most soldering is lead free, the lead replacements can give off toxic vapours and certainly the fluxes they use during solder can be toxic, too. Metals such as mercury can be common and the boards themselves can contain toxic materials when they are drilled or messed with in the wrong way.

Plus, as someone else said, the quantities of valuable metals in these boards is small compared to the outlay and effort to extract them.

The best way to recycle for cash is to remove the parts that are easily removed with no more than a screwdriver and sell on auction sites. Sell the board as spares or repair on an auction site.

Don't try getting the metals. I'm a pro with electronics, and I wouldn't try it.

Schneckster

waggersrah

I looked into this - and the laws are amazing. To do it, you have to be registered for trade waste etc, and even you vehicle licenced and insured appropriately.... Plus - if yo do it for companies, they will want certification of data destruction - and the software is EXPENSIVE...

Good idea however just too much red tape...