The impossible happens every day

[Justin Thomas]

Because the whole environmental thing was never designed to be fair and equitable. It's about control. You get caught dumping oil in the local ditch, you're fined to an amount that utterly ruins you financially, socially, and have to go check in to your corporate masters to put gruel on your table. Exxon does it, fined a peanut amount in comparison, oh, here's pagamento in cash, and they're too big to fail anyway, so here's your bailout, too. It eliminates the small players by stacking the deck in favor of those who can pay off punishments, instead of based on actual competition grounds like quality. It doesn't help that no one really cares about quality any more, but that's a different rant...

Calli me cynical, but Chuck, you're a painter. How do you fare if you get caught dumping in the local reservoir? I'd guess you're finished...

Justin

[Mick Bailey]

Let's see a show of hands from the guys that dispose of their batteries "correctly" instead of throwing them in the trash...

I do, because the local supermarkets have a battery bin. Maybe they then get thrown out in someone else's trash in China or India. They don't appear to end up being recycled into other batteries - Energizer is running TV ads that show only 4% recycled content (on certain types only). That's pathetically low. They call them 'EcoAdvanced'. Stick eco on it and feel good.

Here's the ad copy. You need to read it on an empty stomach;

"They said it couldn't be done. Our scientists found a way. A battery made with recycled batteries that maintains high battery runtime? An impossibility for decades is now reality - thanks to Energizer® scientists, breakthrough technology and exclusive partnerships. Introducing Energizer® EcoAdvanced®, the world's first AA battery made with 4% recycled batteries and our longest-lasting alkaline."

[Leo_Gnardo]

Let's see a show of hands from the guys that dispose of their batteries "correctly" instead of throwing them in the trash...

Used to. There was a time, not long ago, directions were "double plastic bag your 9V & flashlight batteries, put 'em in the recycle bin." Then I found out, everything in the recycle truck gets dumped in . . . . the county incinerator where all the rest of the garbage goes. Paper, glass, metal, whatever, it all gets roasted with nice clean cooking gas. Recycling around here is an expensive politician/mobster joke. NOW they don't want 'em separated at all, just heave batteries in with your wilted lettuce leaves, bread wrappers & other crap. All going to the same place anyway, in 2 separate trucks so we can charge you double.

Car batteries, another story. Just swapped mine out, you bet I collected that $15 core charge and gave 'em another besides. Counter guy said he lives in a trailer park, spotted old car batteries stashed under nearly every trailer. He knocked on neighbors' doors & got the OK to remove dozens of car batteries, removing lead hazard as well as sulfuric acid. You know some kids are gonna have to play with them eventually so now the trailer park is just a tiny bit safer. Battery delivery truck takes 'em all away. You can be sure that lead gets recycled.

[Justin Thomas]

I asked at my local battery specialty store if I should bring in my alkaline along with my blown Ni Cads & lead/acids for recycling. They said "we take them but it's probably better to toss them in the trash, in hopes that maybe the alkaline will neutralize all the acid crap that ends up in the landfill that shouldn't." Yay, less gas burned by me, making all that evil CO2!

Justin

[Drewline]

We stopped recycling this last year after seeing the recycling get dumped into the same truck as our regular garbage. Why pay money for something which is not happening anyways. Also there have been numerous articles on how ineffective single stream recycling is.

[Leo_Gnardo]

We stopped recycling this last year after seeing the recycling get dumped into the same truck as our regular garbage. Why pay money for something which is not happening anyways. Also there have been numerous articles on hoe ineffective single stream recycling is.

Roger that. Besides the annoyance of paying extra for "recycling theater", add disillusionment. 1969 I lived in one of the first towns to offer, then require household recycling, items separated paper, metal, glass, plastic. And worked as a volunteer at the recy-center, packing trucks full of baled newspaper, separating clear, green & brown glass, etc. 46 years later negative progress, it's come to this, it's bullshit. The only "benefit" is buying extra trucks & paying extra personnel at the trash company, and pay for gas to incinerate that which can't be burned: glass & metal, also knowing there's no improvement in exhaust from that incinerator. All the same old crap goes into the air: lead, mercury, products of half-burnt plastic, etc. Meanwhile our county pays an extra 25 cents penalty tax per gallon for gasoline, because our air cleanliness tests constantly fail to meet standards. Terrific.

[Drewline]

I can only agree with what km6xz states above. I spent 35 years as a camera repairman. I watched the industy wither & die as cameras went digital & then mostly disposable. The expense of tools / test equipment / training made it prohibitive for small independent service shops to survive if they could get manufacturer authorization. The manufacturers went from skilled in-house technicians to trained monkeys working for independent contractors. Just throw parts at it until it works or replace it with another unit. The last few training seminars I attended consisted of a young member of the repair management staff presenting a power point viewing of the service manual page by page in ESL. We never trained on the high end professional model cameras. Those were always "factory service only" if you were authorized. Now who needs a camera when it is built into their I Phone?
In the last 10 years that I've returned to working in music electronics I've seen the same parallels occuring in this industry. I can agree with Chuck H about the longevity of independent general repair. There are those of us skilled in maintaining obsolete technology who will be able to survive for a while. Instead of "Electronic Technician" my next business cards will read "Curator of Obsolete Technology.

[olddawg]

I had a guy bring me a Roland keyboard amp combo the other day. It had been in 3 different shops. He was told 1) schematic was unavailable, 2) parts were unavailable, 3) no one could fix it because it had been damaged from being run off of a generator. What I found: it need an output IC that I got from MCM for $6 and had 2 open 2 amp fuses (the little plastic black ones that look like tiny hockey pucks, lol) I used standard glass miniature pigtail fused on end. Works fine. The most time consuming part of the repair was that he brought it to me taken apart. I told him $75 for the repair. He gave me $100 because he was so happy and greatful. It was no big deal. I don't get who is out there anymore.

[Mackin]

[...] There are those of us skilled in maintaining obsolete technology who will be able to survive for a while. Instead of "Electronic Technician" my next business cards will read "Curator of Obsolete Technology.

I don't know where to start...

This is all very true and equally heartbreaking to read for me.

Sometimes I wish I was born a couple of decades earlier.

[g1]

Those that have been to several shops but turn out to be fairly simple are always interesting and can result in life-long clients.
I had a blackface that was blowing fuses, previous shop had replaced all filter caps, still didn't work and charged the owner way too much.
I found a bad rectifier tube and PT. That was fortunate because all the new filter caps had been installed backwards, but were fine because it had never powered up.

[Leo_Gnardo]

There are those of us skilled in maintaining obsolete technology who will be able to survive for a while. Instead of "Electronic Technician" my next business cards will read "Curator of Obsolete Technology.

"Curator of Obsolete Technology", already there, it's a life sentence. Not just fixin' old amp gear, that & everything else. I can still get a band sounding good, fast, with 70's technology PA gear too. Last week had to suffer thru a show where FOH mixer couldn't get his rig to stop "moo"ing for most of the show, though he had the latest Captain Billy Whiz-Bang digital console. Crikeys, just reach for the graphic, dip 160 Hz, gone in a second, geeze! Oh no, we gotta flip thru pages, scenes, channels, virtual knobs, stop & check for new farcebook friends while we're at it, MOOOOOOO! MOOOOOOO! Send some texts too, LOL, OMG, LOL, OMG! MOOOO!

[Mackin]

Hahaha !!

Had a good laugh reading that.

[Richard]

I heard somewhere the amount of a car battery that is not recyclable is the equivalent weight of 4 nickels. Out of a 40 pound battery. I'm not sure of the details but lead can be cleaned or remelted, plastic as well. The acid can probably be purified as well.

Many things that are recycled are "demoted", bottles become carpet, etc. The automobile is actually the most recycled thing around. That and gold.

[Enzo]

Aluminum. I can't say percents, but we recycle huge amounts of it, mostly beverage containers.

[Mick Bailey]

Some years back I tried to set up a not-for-profit recycling business to employ adults with learning difficulties. It was at a time where there were huge amounts of IT kit being thrown into landfill or incinerated and the EU was just waking up with the WEEE directive. Many businesses, including my own, were paying companies to dispose of equipment.

I set up a project for one of my staff to research how a PC, monitor and keyboard could all get properly recycled. The idea was to seperate every item into different waste streams. He found a company that would buy PCBs by the Kg, one that would buy the plastic, another the metal etc. We then looked at how these would be recycled and the processes involved.

The most difficult thing to dispose of was CRT tubes. No-one wanted to handle them so we found a company in China that would buy them and turn them into ingredients for washing (laundry) powder. The other surprise was the company that recycled PCBs ground them into a flour - components and all - and then treated this as a material to extract from using various acids, alkalis, electrolysis and chemical reactions.

Overall we could get the materials properly recycled and the figures all worked out, but the whole thing never went anywhere because of resistance by the local council. It did open my eyes though to what could be achieved with some effort and determination.