That’s just how electronics recycling is, though. The amount of labor it would take to save all those SMT and BGA components is ridiculous and, honestly, is a pretty specialized skill even if it is easy to learn. The logistics of scale really makes it unreasonable, especially when simpler components can be had for literal pennies. There’s a point where the material cost of the copper is worth more than the labor it takes to do anything else with the board, and it happens a lot sooner than you think.
The amount of Labor that would go into it it really isn’t that high.
This is what distribution is for.
The company that owns the hardware is not the company that recycles it. The recycler can make a profit by reselling these components, they’re not allowed to.
Many of these components still have to be pulled out so that labor cost is already a wash. The additional labor cost of testing, selling, packaging, and shipping is baked into the price in the secondary market.
Not everything is worth being resold, but many things are and those things are often not allowed to be resold due to destruction contracts.
I get that the logistics of setting up what’s basically a secondary supply chain is difficult, but I’ve got to believe it would be for the better.
hear me out: an org that guaranteed destruction of any residual data and ensured that no component or resource was wasted, was responsible nationwide for the collection of all e-waste into resource streams OR repair for reuse.
I’m just saying, techpriests might make me reevaluate my views on organized religion.
That’s just how electronics recycling is, though. The amount of labor it would take to save all those SMT and BGA components is ridiculous and, honestly, is a pretty specialized skill even if it is easy to learn. The logistics of scale really makes it unreasonable, especially when simpler components can be had for literal pennies. There’s a point where the material cost of the copper is worth more than the labor it takes to do anything else with the board, and it happens a lot sooner than you think.
The amount of Labor that would go into it it really isn’t that high.
This is what distribution is for.
The company that owns the hardware is not the company that recycles it. The recycler can make a profit by reselling these components, they’re not allowed to.
Many of these components still have to be pulled out so that labor cost is already a wash. The additional labor cost of testing, selling, packaging, and shipping is baked into the price in the secondary market.
Not everything is worth being resold, but many things are and those things are often not allowed to be resold due to destruction contracts.
I think when the economics of destroying a thing is better than reusing a thing, we should maybe have some sort of incentives toward reuse.
I get that the logistics of setting up what’s basically a secondary supply chain is difficult, but I’ve got to believe it would be for the better.
hear me out: an org that guaranteed destruction of any residual data and ensured that no component or resource was wasted, was responsible nationwide for the collection of all e-waste into resource streams OR repair for reuse.
I’m just saying, techpriests might make me reevaluate my views on organized religion.