Anyone Recycle old monitors?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Clark
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Clark

Anyone know of a chain store or other places you might be able to recycle a
Viewsonic monitor? I haven't asked Viewsonic yet, but I will next.

Clark
 
Clark said:
Anyone know of a chain store or other places you might be able to recycle
a Viewsonic monitor? I haven't asked Viewsonic yet, but I will next.

Clark
Click to expand...

I tore down a dozen old monitors yesterday. I'm doing a Cooperative
Education session with a startup company called Retread Computers here in
Portland, Oregon. (Tearing down isn't what I'm there to do; I'm actually
working on the looseleaf illustrated manual on tearing down computers and
monitors.)

Trouble with that is, as a bare startup arrangement, Michael doesn't have
his ducks in a row yet as to pricing, shipping, and such. He contacts local
businesses and negotiates everything piecemeal so far. But he's also
working on a couple of neat arrangements under which large stores that sell
monitors will take the old one in trade with maybe a $10 discount (which is
really just a promotional coupon for new sales), then give us the pile of
monitors to tear down.

We get something like $6 each for the recyclable materials in one, mostly
copper, aluminum, steel, and glass. Even the circuit boards are sent off and
processed for solder, copper tracings, and the gold in the contacts. That
means we can break even or a little better if we have a big pile we get
free, but we'd have to charge a few dollars to handle one monitor that walks
in.

All that aside, the thing to do is call your local Waste Management agency.
They may have a special number just for recycling questions, but in any case
they do keep information on material they'd just as soon keep out of the
landfill.
 
;

I tore down a dozen old monitors yesterday. I'm doing a Cooperative
Education session with a startup company called Retread Computers here in
Portland, Oregon. (Tearing down isn't what I'm there to do; I'm actually
working on the looseleaf illustrated manual on tearing down computers and
monitors.)

Trouble with that is, as a bare startup arrangement, Michael doesn't have
his ducks in a row yet as to pricing, shipping, and such. He contacts local
businesses and negotiates everything piecemeal so far. But he's also
working on a couple of neat arrangements under which large stores that sell
monitors will take the old one in trade with maybe a $10 discount (which is
really just a promotional coupon for new sales), then give us the pile of
monitors to tear down.

We get something like $6 each for the recyclable materials in one, mostly
copper, aluminum, steel, and glass. Even the circuit boards are sent off and
processed for solder, copper tracings, and the gold in the contacts. That
means we can break even or a little better if we have a big pile we get
free, but we'd have to charge a few dollars to handle one monitor that walks
in.
Click to expand...

Man, I'm getting ripped off. Our local dump (Lane County, Oregon) *charges*
us to recycle old monitors and other computer gear - eight bucks for a
monitor and five bucks for a computer. Bastards!

Jon.
 
I'll look into it, thanks. This one is probably fixable but maybe not worth
the cost. I just hate to toss something that might still be useful.

Thanks,
Clark
 
Too far to ship from Texas. I will look for somewhere close if I don't
decide to just dump it. I may take it to a repair shop. It seems I remember
the last one I went to (several years ago) said if you don't want to pay the
repair cost, they would just keep it.

Clark
 
Clark said:
I'll look into it, thanks. This one is probably fixable but maybe not
worth the cost. I just hate to toss something that might still be useful.
Click to expand...
Man, I know that one! It's hard for me to let go of something amazing that
still works, even though it's useless. That is the story for at least two
computers in my garage, and any number of parts and cables.

Here it is with CRT monitors: Three components commonly go bad: the power
supply, the phosphor coating on the inside front of the tube, and the data
cable.

If the picture is getting smaller or flickering in one corner or not holding
its shape, the colors are separating along one edge, and/or you hear a 16
KHz whistle from the back of the monitor, the power supply is failing.
Often they behave this way for a while, then just blink out like a blown
light bulb. The power supply is soldered to the motherboard, and there's
really no way to replace it.

If the picture is slowly getting dark and dim, the phosphors are spent.
This happens so slowly you get used to it until you put your monitor next to
a bright new one and go "wow." Repair would mean replacing the tube, which
is virtually impossible judging from the construction of the ones I've torn
apart, even if you could find a replacement tube.

If one of the three colors doesn't work, the color looks plain weird, and
the color that doesn't work sometimes blinks in and out, chances are you
have a broken wire in the data cable where it attaches to the computer. In
many monitors, the data cable is extremely easy to replace but the only way
to get a part is to salvage it from a monitor which has died of one of the
other two issues. Some really high-quality ones have externally replaceable
generic cables, and I think they all should.

All in all it's rarely practical to repair one of these things. Good ones
last a long time, but when they go, they go.

Obsolescence is another matter. I'm using several that other people have
retired just because they're small. One, a 1986-era 14" Sony, is really a
thing of beauty and will be missed when it fails. We use these on the
workbenches at Retread, when assembling salvaged systems and installing
software.
 
Good Will maybe. I see worse junk in those stores. A nice 10 year old 15" or
17" monitor would find a nice home for the trailer trash that live around my
town.

-Max
 
The Monitor has lost one of its colors, green, and appears to be about to
loose blue. The last time if was repaired it had gone black and it cost me
$150. It has lasted about 3 more years, so I think that repair was worth
it, but I believe it is too old to do that again.

Clark
 
Jon Danniken said:
;

Man, I'm getting ripped off. Our local dump (Lane County, Oregon) *charges*
us to recycle old monitors and other computer gear - eight bucks for a
monitor and five bucks for a computer. Bastards!

Jon.
Click to expand...

They also have to pay union people to handle them. Retread plans to use
students and subsidized disabled workers. You're not getting ripped off if
you're paying $8 to recycle a monitor. If you paid $8 each to recycle a
hundred, that would be pretty questionable, because an outfit like Retread
can actually come out ahead on that volume. But one? The cost of unloading
it from your car approaches $8.
 
Clark said:
The Monitor has lost one of its colors, green, and appears to be about to
loose blue. The last time if was repaired it had gone black and it cost me
$150. It has lasted about 3 more years, so I think that repair was worth
it, but I believe it is too old to do that again.

Clark
Click to expand...

Given that symptom it's about a 90% chance the problem is at the end of the
cable, where the wire enters the connector on the computer end.

Should be an extremely simple repair, but the parts just aren't out there.
If I had it here, I'd start watching the ones we tear down to see if I can
salvage a match, but that's a little hard to do from 200 miles away.
 
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