
E-Waste Empire - Tomte
http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/22/11991440/eri-e-waste-electronics-recycling-nyc-gadget-trash
======
baybal2
I began my career in a company called Yamin in Singapore that had a
refurbished electronics business.

At first, I was shocked that Americans can throw away 1 year old and even half
year old goods in the dumpster. In 2.5, years time I managed to make enought
money of my commission selling refurbished cellphones to Russia through
Alibaba to move to Canada and enrol into college.

~~~
DanBC
[http://articles.latimes.com/1987-11-15/news/mn-20827_1_gomi-...](http://articles.latimes.com/1987-11-15/news/mn-20827_1_gomi-
pile)

People used to furnish their entire apartments with other people's trash in
Japan in the 1980s.

~~~
noonespecial
Reminds me of spermuhl in Germany in the late 80's/early 90's. I taught myself
electronics by fishing out treasures from the bounty of German neighborhoods'
"bulk garbage" days and tearing them down. I got a good dose of design along
with it because a lot of it was Braun from the 60's & 70's.

Memories.

~~~
kaybe
> spermuhl

The word you're looking for is 'Sperrmüll'. And I agree, it's good fun to hunt
for treasures.

------
waterphone
I hope component level circuit board repair continues to grow in popularity
and accessibility. Damage and failure which cause devices to be thrown away
can often be fixed by a skilled person with specialized microsoldering
equipment.

But electronics manufacturers in general seem to be opposed to this idea,
preferring that people dispose of products after a few years and buy something
new, and often taking measures to actively discourage people from fixing their
devices. Not only is this anti-consumer, it further promotes e-waste.

[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPjp41qeXe1o_lp1US9TpWA](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPjp41qeXe1o_lp1US9TpWA)

[https://www.youtube.com/user/rossmanngroup](https://www.youtube.com/user/rossmanngroup)

[http://motherboard.vice.com/read/how-to-fix-
everything](http://motherboard.vice.com/read/how-to-fix-everything)

~~~
bagels
Repair labor cost can easily exceed the cost of a new item.

~~~
pjc50
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11958405](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11958405)
rather contradicts that. Repair _in the West_ more expensive than a new item,
I can believe. But once it's shipped back to the land of cheap labour the
economics are different.

------
nitwit005
This vaguely condemns sending scrap metals abroad with "were safety standards
are lax in comparison.", but it makes sense to do so. Having them mine and
smelt new ore is hardly a desirable outcome, either from a safety or
environmental standpoint.

And surprisingly, it can actually be cheaper to send scrap to China than a US
smelter because of the imbalance of trade. The ships would be mostly empty on
the return tip if not for scrap materials being sent back. Circle of life.

------
ilikebits
This is actually also an issue in the Silicon Valley, where you see lots of
startups throwing away perfectly functional electronics because they reached
enterprise end-of-life or they raised a new round and want to buy everyone the
latest laptop.

I work at OpThrift ([https://opthrift.com](https://opthrift.com)) where we
help people buy high-quality used laptops, and startups throwing equipment
away is one of our biggest supply sources. Half of the time, they don't even
care about what price they get and just want us to get the devices out of
their office.

~~~
antisthenes
Nice website design.

Do you offer any non-mac laptops by any chance? I've put in a request.

~~~
ilikebits
Yes! We emphasise MacBooks because it's easier to find supply for those (and
we tend to find better discounts), but that's what our "other" tab is for :)

------
cesarbs
That last picture made me cringe thinking of all the toxic material that
person must be coming in contact with.

