I've never tossed something that is intact.
Neither have I, but I am 59 and I've reached my limit. I have twelve
12" tv's, half color and have black and white, that I have tried or
will try to fix, and about twelve 19" tvs, all color, that I haven't
tried to fix yet but will give them maybe an hour each. But now I
have 3 more than I can use 19 inch that work, all from the trash. In
the last couple years, most that I have found still work.
And last week I found a 24 or 25 inch model. So far it only gets 2, 4
(DC), 11, 13, and 24, but that's using the autofinder. I have to set
a remote to try other stations we have, and if it gets them all, or
even channel 3, I'll use all my strength and get it down to the
basement. It must be fairly old, or maybe it is because of the
picture tube, because it is heavier than other recent 19inch tv's, and
bulky, and I have ready dropped the thing once, breaking the plastic
things the back is screwed to. But I can glue that together well
enough.
But I'm not taking it downstairs until I know it works, so it has been
on the front sidewalk covered by a blue mesh tarp for the last 8 days.
Anyhow, what is the point of fixing tv's that I don't need and will be
almost obsolete in 2? years. (Almost because I'm not buying 7 new
tv's and there won't be any on the sidewalk for a few years, so I'm
going to buy one adapter and use one central place for tuning all the
tv's.
And I can't strip them because I'm out of room for storing such parts.
So 24 tv's or more are going to go out pretty much in one piece during
the next 4 months. Plus I have a small xerox machine that according
to the paperwork I found with it, the previous owner didn't want to
pay to have it fixed, and I don't think I can. And a big but light
laser printer that needs a new heater, that I got for free or under 5
dollars, and it wasn't worth fixing.
But then I want the parts
myself. So I will strip a bad hard drive down, get the magnets out of it,
and the metal from them goes to metal recycling. This is not even some
great skill, if people can screw together an Ikea table, they can strip
down their computer before tossing.
But they won't. This is why I'm pretty sure the trash man will still
take tv's, because for a lot of people, it will be an incredible chore
to go to this one place in central baltimore county, 20 or 30 miles
from where some people live.
But then there's an interesting point. If I come across a computer waiting
for the garbage, if it's intact (and of interest), I'd make the effort to
bring it home.
I do that too. So far the fastest I've gotten was 200 MHz, but it was
a Dell also and I wanted one for a particular reason.
But the more that's been stripped, the less likely I
will. I may take parts, if anything interesting remains. A complete
unit might find someone who can fix it or make use of it (a lot of
electronics is tossed for reasons other than it's broken), but a stripped
unit won't.
And as electronic recycling becomes common place, I'm not fully conviced
the right decisions will be made. I'd love to drop off some junk (like
that I've pulled from the garbage in the first place) and be able to claim
something someone else has tossed, that interests me or can finish off
something I have (like claim a hard drive to go in that computer I brought
home that had none). But that can't happen, because any useful items,
at least here, are sold on the used market to help finance the collection.
Yet I imagine there is much that can't find a market, because it's old
or obscure, the sorts of things I'd really like to come across. The rest
is likely stripped, but again, I wonder if they seek the hard to reuse
things like the gold on connectors, rather than the parts themselves.
I just want to get a 1" x 1 1/2" x 1/4" plastic piece that says
Kenmore on it, from a refrigerator at the waste disposal place, but I
haven't found one yet. I knocked the piece off and it should be on
the floor in my kitchen somewhere, but I haven't found it yet. If I
order the part, it will probably be 325 dollars.
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