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Weedygarden

Weedygarden

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Dec 3, 2017
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The STUFF! Am I the only one who feels like it is a daily battle to deal with STUFF? I am throwing stuff away, recycling, taking stuff to the thrift stores to donate, repairing, and refusing packaging.

Today, I took 8 electronic pieces to an e-cycle event. This was a big win for me and mine. I took 3 printers, a VCR, stereo receiver, projector, fax machine and an old television that no longer has a picture. The price of recycling is crazy, except for these events. The television was $20, and everything else, altogether, was $5.

I debated about getting the television repaired, but I do have another one, bigger and better. The cost to get things repaired is sky high.

You may not remember when I broke my KitchenAid with a piece of hard brown sugar. Repair or replace? It is about 15 years old. The beaters no long turn.

How much is it worth repairing items instead of replacing them? We live in a throw away society, so many of us just toss and replace. When we replace items, we may have more ability with something, especially with electronics and appliances. The newer washers and driers are pretty amazing, but also pricier.

It is a dilema for me! How do you decide? I guess I am old school and repairing is always my first idea.
 
Caribou said:
If I can repair something that is what I do. Anything smaller than a car, that I can't fix, gets replaced.
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Younger people, like my daughter, are buying quality items. Her idea is that she will only have to buy most things once in her lifetime, and not replace things periodically. If it breaks, she gets it fixed. Her Vitamix broke and she took it in to get it repaired. Evidently, they have a 7 year warranty and hers broke with the warranty still in effect. Vitamix are used in a specific way and someone else was using hers for a few months. She thinks it is because he didn't use it in the way you are supposed to. But, it wasn't his, so when it broke, it didn't matter to him. He was done using it.
 
I don't like the new washers though that have water savers on them. I work out side a lot and don't need sudsy sweat from half rinsed clothes. So I just run them through the washer twice so it saves nothing but makes power bill higher.
 
I dislike the electronics in appliances. I had a dryer that worked perfectly except the heat control relay went bad. A $5 part that was not replaceable and the board it was mounted to was no longer made. So I had to buy a new $800 dryer for lack of a $5 part - stupid! Why would an engineer solder a mechanical switch on a board full of electronics when you know that the mechanical switch is going to go bad? It should have been mounted in a socket so you could unplug it and replace it.
When we bought our new dryer I asked if they had any without the electronics... nope!
 
Weedygarden said:
The price of recycling is crazy, except for these events. The television was $20, and everything else, altogether, was $5.
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To be clear, they paid you, you didn't pay them, right?

For me, it depends on the item. Old clothes washers and dryers are much better IMHO and I'll keep them alive as long as possible.
Tube TV's - I just gave them away - most still work.
Other small items that die, I put in the recycles.
 
zoomzoom said:
To be clear, they paid you, you didn't pay them, right?
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Oh no. You have to pay to have these things taken away. If you don't think so, check again. I know they have these events every spring in my area, I have just never gotten it together to take all of my stuff there before today. Some of this stuff has been in the garage for too long!

We used to have big dumpsters in our alleys and people threw all of this stuff in there. I did as well. Now we have the rolling bins, like most of America. I try to give away and donate when I can. Electronic stuff is usually refused at thrift stores and other places that accept donations.

I think I told this story. I walk with a friend who lives a few miles away. Her neighbors were having some construction done and had a roll off parked on the street. I pulled up one morning and a man was standing in his pickup bed, throwing all kinds of stuff into their dumpster. I honked at him and shook my finger at him. He stopped for a moment and kept on. Another woman I know lives on a busy street, so her roll off was dropped on the street behind her. In the morning, it was full of someone else's stuff, and she had to pay to have it emptied. This is how people dispose of stuff for free. That, and dumping it somewhere where it is not legal to dump.
 
We try to fix what we can. We recycle everything we can too, which has helped cut down on garbage. I compost what I can, which also helps cut down on garbage and improves my soil. We also tend to buy quality products that stand the test of time OR we find the good older products and use those instead. We also try and find other uses for things that no longer serve their original purpose. As an example, we had a microwave start to catch fire this winter. Instead of throwing it out, we will likely use it to bury something in it as a cache to keep the contents more secure and clean. It will also be easier to find with a metal detector if the need should arise.

Zoomzoom - around here you have to pay to take your electronics to be recycled.
 
Yes, the TV with the old picture tube has lead and mercury in it and you have to pay the hazardous material fees.
Most of the electronics that get recycled use hazardous chemicals in the reclamation process so you pay part of that cost as well.
You can get a gram of gold out of a computer but it take some nasty chemicals followed by electrolysis to do it. All those chemicals have to be disposed of or recycled and reused.
The gold alone is not worth the cost but when you add all the copper it makes a small profit. You can get a half pound of copper from the power supply or from a microwave oven.
 
I fix what is repairable and will sometimes re-purpose parts from things that can't be fixed. There is nothing in a dryer that can be used for much else. The heat element is the wrong shape for a steam tube and the drums, unless they are stainless are only worth minimal scrap price because of the coating. The motors are too small and under powered for much use - it wouldn't even work for a small bench grinder. The gearbox is filled with nylon coated gears so they are good for nothing either.Our old egg beater stripped the plastic gears but I saved the motor for a future purpose - if I come up with an idea that needs it. Four speeds and no torque means something with low loads but it has a nice steel worm gear on it. :)
 
SheepDog said:
I fix what is repairable and will sometimes re-purpose parts from things that can't be fixed. There is nothing in a dryer that can be used for much else. The heat element is the wrong shape for a steam tube and the drums, unless they are stainless are only worth minimal scrap price because of the coating. The motors are too small and under powered for much use - it wouldn't even work for a small bench grinder. The gearbox is filled with nylon coated gears so they are good for nothing either.Our old egg beater stripped the plastic gears but I saved the motor for a future purpose - if I come up with an idea that needs it. Four speeds and no torque means something with low loads but it has a nice steel worm gear on it. :)
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It was my hope that many parts that we can no longer purchase could be made with a 3-D printer. Maybe many can, but we haven't got enough people with knowledge of 3-D printing, access to a printer, and a collection of patterns to use when needed.
 
SheepDog said:
I dislike the electronics in appliances. I had a dryer that worked perfectly except the heat control relay went bad. A $5 part that was not replaceable and the board it was mounted to was no longer made. So I had to buy a new $800 dryer for lack of a $5 part - stupid! Why would an engineer solder a mechanical switch on a board full of electronics when you know that the mechanical switch is going to go bad? It should have been mounted in a socket so you could unplug it and replace it.
When we bought our new dryer I asked if they had any without the electronics... nope!
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So you'll have to buy another one? They are made to only work fro awhile. Unlike the old ones that could be passed down to family 30 years later. Not the washboards but the electric ones of course.
 
We bought a replacement for the dryer. And yes, it will have a ten year life before they stop making replacement parts.

As you say - patterns would be required and there are just way more parts that wear out than we could make patterns for. There is also the availability of the right plastic to use. A gear takes a different plastic than connecting link or a housing. Some of those plastics would be a real challenge for the standard printer to handle. It is a lot easier to make something that looks like the part you need than it is to make one that will do the job.
Of all the tech that I use daily I have never felt the need for a 3D printer. I make things with wood and steel and that works for most everything I need. I could have used a 3D printer to make the feed spool for my annealer but I just bought a couple of caster wheels and made them work. Maybe when the 3D metal printers are more available and a lot cheaper I will get one.
 
A Bar-B-Q came with the house but a couple of parts were burnt out but replaceable. Over the winter we had a storm that knocked the Bar-B-Q over and damaged the valves. That made it more work than I wanted to deal with. When they delivered the new appliance they took the old one. I had taken the hose, regulator, wheels, and axle for future projects.

Cords get cut from electronics. We just had a freezer die, that made for an interesting couple of hours, and surprise, the wife wants me to save the bins in case we have a need later.
 
zoomzoom said:
Oh, hell no. I'm not paying to dispose of my "stuff".
Around here, I give it for free or check with a "scrapper" who takes care of it or post on CraigsList. On CL, around here, they pay you for appliances. Normally $20 each.
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Down here the county dump has an area off to the side for recycle stuff. No charge. There's a place for tires, oils, appliances and metal odds and ends. Its cheaper for the county to make the dump free instead of sending people out to pick it up from the desert.
 
Terri9630 said:
Down here the county dump has an area off to the side for recycle stuff. No charge. There's a place for tires, oils, appliances and metal odds and ends. Its cheaper for the county to make the dump free instead of sending people out to pick it up from the desert.
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We have one too and it comes in handy when you clean out the barns or sheds.
 
Terri9630 said:
Down here the county dump has an area off to the side for recycle stuff. No charge. There's a place for tires, oils, appliances and metal odds and ends. Its cheaper for the county to make the dump free instead of sending people out to pick it up from the desert.
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I think this is such a smart idea! If more communities had this, there would be so much less dumping out in the middle of nowhere, or in some farmer's ditch. I have heard of people taking their garbage out and dumping it, but with mail with their name on it in the mix. Later, they were contacted and fined. I love that. I don't understand the lack of integrity that some people have relative to their own garbage, including dog poop.
 
Weedygarden said:
I think this is such a smart idea! If more communities had this, there would be so much less dumping out in the middle of nowhere, or in some farmer's ditch. I have heard of people taking their garbage out and dumping it, but with mail with their name on it in the mix. Later, they were contacted and fined. I love that. I don't understand the lack of integrity that some people have relative to their own garbage, including dog poop.
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I agree,it also gets into the ground water.
 
zoomzoom said:
Oh, hell no. I'm not paying to dispose of my "stuff".
Around here, I give it for free or check with a "scrapper" who takes care of it or post on CraigsList. On CL, around here, they pay you for appliances. Normally $20 each.
Click to expand...
It depends on what it is in my area. We have scrappers who will come to your home and pick up things like washers, dryers, refigerators, stoves, etc. Mostly things that have lots of metal that they can scrap and make some money on. Or, you could just load it up and take it to the scrap yard yourself. Our local utility company will also give you a $50 credit for your old appliances when you upgrade to a more efficient appliance. However, in order to qualify for the rebate the old appliance still has to be in working order. For smaller appliances they offer a smaller credit amount. Unfortunately this is only for appliances and not electronics like fax machines, radios, copiers, TV's, etc.
 
Weedygarden said:
I think this is such a smart idea! If more communities had this, there would be so much less dumping out in the middle of nowhere, or in some farmer's ditch. I have heard of people taking their garbage out and dumping it, but with mail with their name on it in the mix. Later, they were contacted and fined. I love that. I don't understand the lack of integrity that some people have relative to their own garbage, including dog poop.
Click to expand...
At our last place one day when out for a walk I found where someone had dumped a clothes dryer with trash inside it. The trash had their name and address on it. I called the county Sherriff's office. The person was polite to me but when they found out the trash was on federal land they said to call the feds. So I called the BLM office for my area. They had no interest in doing anything about it. About a year later when the price of metal went up someone hauled the dryer to the recyclers.
 
hiwall said:
At our last place one day when out for a walk I found where someone had dumped a clothes dryer with trash inside it. The trash had their name and address on it. I called the county Sherriff's office. The person was polite to me but when they found out the trash was on federal land they said to call the feds. So I called the BLM office for my area. They had no interest in doing anything about it. About a year later when the price of metal went up someone hauled the dryer to the recyclers.
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Rather than dumping so they wouldn't have to pay to dispose of it, they could have easily had someone come and take it away. There are people who somewhat support themselves that way. While packing up books at a former lawyer's office for resale, there were two men and a woman loading up some filing cabinets and other metal. The new building owner told me he thought they were looking for money for booze, probably part of their daily routine. It was kind of like a comedy routine, and these people seemed like serious drunks.

Metal recycling is a big thing. People will steal downspouts, and anything they can to recycle it. Children will walk around looking for metal for recycling. A couple of teenage boys found a suitcase with a body in it while looking for metal to recycle for spending money.

I was having my brick chimney rebuilt a few years ago. The chimney guy needed a lift to do the job and took my fence apart so he could drive the lift close enough. He just laid the fence down. Fence sections disappeared before he finished the job and he went and bought the replacement parts.
 
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