How Do You Discard Of Old / Broken Cameras?

JH
John Honovich
Mar 19, 2013
IPVM

I was reading a NY Times article titled, "Unwanted Electronic Gear Rising in Toxic Piles" which made me wonder how companies are dealing with old / broken surveillance cameras? Are most people simply throwing them in the trash or are they sending them somewhere?

Rv
Rogier van der Heide
Mar 19, 2013

There are certain advantages working at a steel company with lots of liquid steel!

No not really :) We actually have quite a large waste management service which handles all kinds of waste. And electronics is being handled separately. I recon they are all appropriately handled.

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Christopher Freeman
Mar 19, 2013

I was not aware they were toxic or hazmat. We use to throw them out in garbage, give them to customers for dummy cameras, or employees for their use.

Now with everything a Recycling nightmare, you have to handle all items like there toxic or ewaste. More Green Economics boosters for the industry.

The waste disposal takes them, process's them, sends them oversees they burn in open pit applications and melt down with no controls at all and put the toxins in the environment , send back thru polluted air via the jetstream, and we are helping the environment.

I think giving them away in public would be a better solution. Thier worth is about .04 cents per lb. When melted down it becomes alot more.

MI
Matt Ion
Mar 19, 2013

I think the only "toxin" of real concern in electronics is the mercury used in some components... as minimal as it may be, it does add up in landfills, and if the cameras keep piling up for a few thousand years, it may even reach measurable levels.

In any case, the BC government has been very big on responsible recycling the past couple decades and government-supported recycling centers have been continually expanding their programs so that most of them now accept electronics for "proper disposal" as well. For me, there's one two blocks down the street, so disposing of cameras and other gear is as easy as tossing it in a box and hauling it down there.

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Aaron Auseth
Mar 25, 2013

We use an eletronics disposal company for all of our old computers, monitors, keyboards, cameras, just about anything with a circuit board goes in a big bin for our disposal contractor. We don't donate anything to local schools anymore, the lawyers just make everything too difficult.

MI
Matt Ion
Mar 26, 2013

"We don't donate anything to local schools anymore, the lawyers just make everything too difficult."

After all, no good deed goes unpunished.

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