# Scrapyards Now Pay $$$ for Monitors and TV's



## Fever (May 31, 2007)

Gents,

FYI

My local scrapyard in California is now paying $.05/pound for scrap monitors and tv's. I mention this because many recycling industries will charge you a fee to dispose of your monitors. Apparently, the value of this type of scrap is high enough to allow for a small payment for your stuff. Check your local scrapyards to see if they're paying or not. Most will take them for free, if nothing else.

I have previously dabbled in scrapping certain pgm- containing components from older monitors, but now I just take them to the scrapyard.

Just thought I'd let you know.....

Fever


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## lazersteve (Jun 4, 2007)

I'm with you Fever, 

I just dumped another 10 monitors this past weekend. They take up too much room and I just don't have enough time to mess with them. I'm trying to prepare my garage for hurricane season which started June 1. My wife is very happy to see the garage floor again!! :lol: 

Steve


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## Fever (Jun 5, 2007)

LOL!

Yea, they take up alot of space! I was glad to see them go, and pocketed a few bucks for my efforts.

Fever


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## aflacglobal (Jun 23, 2007)

Fever, Hello i noticed you were from CA. I think what the deal is with that
is that the federal gov is more or less subsidizing this thru the scrap network. This is actually no different than giving a city a grant for setting up a street side recycling program. 

CA is big on these things plus they got the political pull and electoral votes to get the funding.
The scrap network would already have the proper channels in place to handler this type of venture. Why they haven't done it up to now is because it was not profitable. The government is the one more or less paying for the disposal and the scrap recyclers is getting the benefit of clearing some profit from both sides. 

What wasn't worth fooling with before is now magically delicious. Especially when you make a nickel or dime a pound only. Even if it's just that . It's still coming in volume.
I will check on this more. I figure not all states will have this, but i will check.

Ralph


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## Anonymous (Aug 8, 2007)

sorry to revive an old topic, but i'll soon be receiving my first shipment of busted computers, etc., and i don't wanna be storing monitors in my garage (i already don't even have space for my car... :shock: ), so i was wondering if anyone had the name/number of any scrapyards in southern california (preferably close to the inland empire somewhere...) that pays the $0.05/lbs that Fever mentioned...i'd like to get paid a little for all the heavy lifting i'll be doing...lol. Thanks in advanced...


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## jimdoc (Aug 8, 2007)

Old topics are there to be revived if you have something to add to them or a question about them, if you start remaking topics that cover the same thing it makes the forum more difficult to find stuff.

Sorry I am in Willow Grove PA and would like to find a place out here for
monitors also, my garage is overflowing right now. It sounds like you being in California, you are in the right state, you just need to find the yards. Jim


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## keith (Aug 8, 2007)

hi,

I am wondering if there is anything of value in computer monitors, that would be of value to recover :roll: . Seems it would be something to research unless someone has done this research already and has found otherwise. what metals are inside the glass tubes, gases, etc. :? 

thanks


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## aflacglobal (Aug 8, 2007)

All them contacts listed i was stalking you for a robot. :lol: 

Welcome to the forum keith. :wink: 

TABLE 1: Substances Found in a Desktop Computer 
(Based on a desktop computer weighing 70 lbs.) 
NAME % TOTAL WEIGHT USE/LOCATION 

plastics 22.9907 housing 
lead 6.2988 CRT, metal joining 
aluminium 14.1723 conductivity/housing,CRT 
germanium 0.0016 semiconductor, ckt board 
gallium 0.0013 semiconductor, ckt board 
iron 20.4712 magnetivity/(steel) housing,CRT 
tin 1.0078 metal joining, CRT 
copper 6.9287 CRT, conductivity, connectors 
barium 0.0315 CRT, getter in vacuum tube 
nickel 0.8503 magnetivity/(steel) housing,CRT 
zinc 2.2046 battery, phosphor emitter, CRT 
tantalum 0.0157 capacitors, power supply 
indium 0.0016 transistor, rectifiers 
vanadium 0.0002 CRT 
beryllium 0.0157 ckt board, connectors 
gold 0.0016 connectivity, conductivity 
europium 0.0002 ckt board 
titanium 0.0157 housing 
ruthenium 0.0016 ckt board 
cobalt 0.0157 CRT, ckt board 
manganese 0.0315 CRT, ckt board 
silver 0.0189 ckt board 
antimony 0.0094 CRT, ckt board 
bismuth 0.0063 ckt board 
chromium 0.0063 housing 
cadmium 0.0094 CRT, ckt board, battery 
selenium 0.0016 ckt board 
niobium 0.0002 housing 
yttrium 0.0002 CRT 
mercury 0.0022 ckt board, batteries, housing 
arsenic 0.0013 ckt board 
silica 24.8803 glass, CRT, ckt board


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## lazersteve (Aug 8, 2007)

Welcome to the forum Keith!

The tube is not filled with a gas, it's a vacuum inside. The board has a few items that contain precious metals , but not much for the effort required to harvest them. I just pull the copper yoke coil off the neck of the tube, cut the connector off of the video cable and take them to the dump.

How did you find the forum?

Steve


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## keith (Aug 9, 2007)

steve,

I bought a report on getting gold from electronic scrap from ebay, then in my further exploration online found the forum,then I found your site, and here i am, i Have in storage about 20 cpus plus other stuff that I bought in a government sale. So instead of going to the dump. I thought I would go electronic prospecting for gold so to speak.  
I have alrady learned alot, this is a very informative and sharing forum.

keith


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## goldsilverpro (Aug 9, 2007)

Where in Missouri, Keith?


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## keith (Aug 9, 2007)

hi,

i actually live in southeast missouri near farmington,mo.

keith


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## GeeDub (Feb 22, 2009)

lazersteve said:


> I just pull the copper yoke coil off the neck of the tube, cut the connector off of the video cable and take them to the dump.



Steve, 
you don't save the power cord and the grounding(?) wire wrapped around the CRT?


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## EDI Refining (Feb 22, 2009)

Fever said:


> Gents,
> 
> FYI
> 
> ...



FYI-
In California registered e waste processors get paid from the state to properly recycle monitiors. I can't remember the actual price per pound, but it was more then 5cents a lb.


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## lazersteve (Feb 22, 2009)

GeeDub said:


> you don't save the power cord and the grounding(?) wire wrapped around the CRT?



G,

The monitors I get usually don't have power cord with them.

I don't bother with the degaussing coil around the tube.

Now days I don't even mess with CRT monitors due to the space they occupy.

Steve


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## Chumbawamba (Feb 25, 2009)

Being a registered California e-waste collector I know a bit about the system.

In brief:

The system was designed to deal primarily with CRTs (i.e. monitors, televisions, etc.) but it covers any display device (i.e. LCD, plasma, etc.) The idea was to make it cheap/free for residents to recycle old monitors since California passed laws in 2000 making it illagel to put CRTs into landfills because of the lead. The legislation was subsequently updated to ban any electronics from landfill (a good thing in my opinion).

Before SB20/50 (the bills that setup the recycling system) were passed in 2003, electronics recyclers used to charge a fee to take monitors and TVs because they had relatively little scrap recovery value. SB20/50 setup a subsidy system to make it free for the consumer to recycle their monitors, but in reality it just passed the costs along to the recycler. True, the consumer now pays a surcharge whenever they buy a new TV or monitor (whatever type it is) to the tune of $5-$15 or something like that, but there are a lot of old TVs and monitors that were in existence prior to this new surcharge.

Within the system there are two types of recycling entities: "Collectors" and "Recyclers".

Collectors are those that simply collect e-waste items but don't necessarily process them. Recyclers are those that actually do dismantling and processing of the electronics. Keep in mind that this refers primarily to the processing of CRTs, as the EPA and OSHA get involved when you are dealing with the teardown of lead-bearing CRTs.

The barrier to entry for Collectors is practically non-existent. You just need to be able to fill out a form. The barrier to entry for Recyclers is a lot higher, since you need to get certification from the DTSC (Department of Toxic Substances Control, the California equivalent of the EPA), have your facility regularly audited, etc.

The mandated reimbursement is $.20/lb for Collectors, and $.39/lb for Recyclers (used to be $.48/lb). The money is disbursed to the Recyclers, who must then share that disbursement with the Collector. For example, say a Collector acquires 100lbs of CRTs. They then bring these to a certified Recycler, who logs this information and submits claims to the State. The Recycler then gets $.39/lb from the State, and of that they must pass on $.20/lb to the Collector. So the Recycler ends up with $39-$20 = $19, and the collector gets $20. If the Recycler is the receiver of the items then they get to keep the whole $.39/lb.

Now, back before the economic armegeddon, competition for CRTs was so fierce that some Recyclers were paying up to $.30/lb, sometimes more for very large volume Collectors. I used to get $.30/lb from my Recycler. They were able to offer this by somehow making money on the backend by selling the scrap copper, aluminum, plastic and electronics extracted from the item. The leaded glass was still a profit sink, but I think my recycler had a deal with a large consumer electronics manufacturer to supply them with the glass, so that's how they were able to offer $.10/lb over the mandated amount. Now that the scrap markets have plummeted they are only paying out the mandated $.20/lb, which sucks. It probably sucks even more for the Recycler, since with all their costs they probably make less or at par of what the Collector makes.

To prevent devices coming in from out of state, logs consisting of name and address must be kept by the Collector/Recycler. This is apparently audited in some way. At some point the State started to require the collection of a phone number and contact person if the number of CRTs dropped off by one entity was 5 or more. I'm not sure what the State does to audit this but I assume they randomly call the people whose names are submitted on the logs.

Overall, I think the system sucks. Before it came about, I used to charge anywhere from $10 to $35 to take a monitor or TV (depending on its size) and pay out anywhere from $5-$8 to dispose of them with my upstream recycler. When the system was first put into place I opted out and continued to charge a fee to take them, and the Recyclers were paying to take them from me, so it was profit on top of profit. Eventually I couldn't sell to the collectors without being part of the system, and I couldn't charge anymore because the system wans you to accept for free to make it easier for the consumer. The competition that sprung up made it untenable to charge anymore anyway, so I had to go to the all free model to stay in business. Profits plunged, and its been a struggle ever since.

So its a perfect example of how government interferes with business, imposes profit-draining regulation, and generally makes a mess of things. Sure, its cheaper now for the consumer, since they get free recycling (except for the surcharge they pay on new devices) but the people who actually do the recycling aren't making the profits they used to. So many people became Collectors when the system put in place that it just diluted the market. Any loser with a pulse can get registered and so now we have a flood of collectors all competing for the State welfare. With the recent collapse of the economy a few players have left the game but I still have competition to deal with, and this town just ain't big enough for both of us. And then there are the clowns that come from out of area, paper neighborhoods with flyers offering free recycling on such and such date, then they come through and sweep it all up (or at least they get what I don't get first 

So I guess that wasn't all too brief, and I probably missed a detail or two, but that, in a nutshell, is how the system in California works. Other states are copying the model. The problem now is the fund that pays out to the Collectors/Recyclers will probably dry up by year end if not sooner, thanks to California's budgetary problems, but due primarily to the drop in sales of new TVs and monitors. If people aren't buying new stuff, they aren't paying the surcharge which goes into the pool that pays the Collectors/Recyclers. I predict a collapse of the system, and a return to the days when those offering recycling services will set fees for handling the stuff. Which is how it should be.


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