Too Much Tech Trash? Plan Your Recycling System

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As more businesses move to technical services or produce technical products--especially with the streamlining of 3D printing--the types of waste being produced may change the way you throw things away. Although many processes seem more sustainable on the outside, you may still end up throwing away cell phones, tablets, laptops, desktop computers, interface cards, and a lot of objects that have hidden metal value. Before tossing everything out with the plastics or the general trash, here are a few valuable metals and minerals to watch out for, along with efficient recycling techniques.

Recyclable Materials On Circuit Boards

Circuit boards come in many shapes and sizes, and often aren't recognized as circuit boards if they're not wide, green rectangles with chips across their faces. 

In desktop computers, circuit boards exist in the form of motherboards, sound cards, video cards, memory modules (random access memory or RAM sticks), and a variety of expansion cards. Laptops have fewer circuit boards, and mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets have even more compact boards.

These boards usually have some mixture of copper, aluminum, and gold to recover. Because of their metal content, circuit boards should always be recycled separate from plastics. The recycling centers will handle the parts removal and separate plastic recycling, and it's usually not cost effective for you to perform scrapping without specialized tools.

If you need to scrap the metals and minerals from circuit boards, be sure to wear gloves and a mask. The removal process leaves a lot of hooks and sharpened resin, which can tear skin easily. Physically scraping up copper and/or gold traces can cause resin dust to enter your lungs, so the breathing protection is necessary. Avoid melting down motherboards, as the reclamation process isn't efficient and releases toxic gasses--part of the reason that recycling needs to happen in the first place.

Recycling Containers For Tech Access

Trash cans and dumpsters are convenient for the standard trash, but what if you want to discourage trash mixing? To stop people from jamming a constant supply of food and drinks into recyclable metals, a dumpster rental professional can provide trash containers with slots that block out most objects while making easy disposal of wet trash difficult.

There will always be someone who forces a fit or throws candy wrappers inside the wrong container, but the main goal is to avoid excessive mixing. For larger recyclable materials such as desktops and laptops during upgrades or severe damage, a separate dumpster in another part of the property is helpful.

Contact a dumpster rental professional for recycling-designated dumpsters and smaller containers for your tech recycling results.

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22 September 2017

eliminating restaurant waste the right way

Owning a small restaurant has been very fun, rewarding and a big learning experience. I had to learn how to go about disposing of all sorts of waste while following environmental guidelines. I have created my blog to help other small restaurant owners find the information that took me weeks to find. My blog will answer many of the questions that you have about waste removal and following the strictest environmental guidelines and help inform you of what can happen if you don't follow those rules. Hopefully, you will not have to spend weeks researching and will find every answer to your questions right here on my blog.