User:Jashcraft

How to Identify John Ashcraft

John Ashcraft!

Formerly known as John the Recycling Intern. Since March 2011, I have been Free Geek's Warehouse_support Staff. Since May 2011, I have also been in charge of bulk sales for printers and other Job Activities for John Ashcraft.

ToDo List

• update todo list

• make a recycling encyclopedia on wiki. Part 1 details for each warehouse task.

Step two, describe in as much detail as possible what happens to our materials and how each bin should be sorted.

• • Status: framework exists and is posted on the wiki. This has become a low priority as time is limited.

• update wiki to show that drives now go below the bench and small cbm goes into the red bin.

One time dusting! blow off keeper shelves,Perhaps set up some box tans with air filters attached to them.

Mostly finished Projects

• We got a large supply of cheap gloves and have been rotating them out of circulation to be washed. Volunteers no longer have to use gloves that have been previously worn in a given day, or more than about 5 times since the last washing. Volunteers also have the option to store a pair of gloves in the warehouse for their personal use.
  • Improvements could include: Formally scheduling the rotation and washing of gloves as well as culling the abandoned gloves from the storage area.

Training I Need/Have

First aid / CPR trained and blood Bourne Pathogen Trained

• (This is supposedly being planned soon - as of April 2011)
• I have read : Injury_Logging_Procedure and Safety.

Forklift Operation. (almost complete)

• I have read the manual and trained with Cliff.
• I have loaded the FG truck for hallmark. I have loaded the Metro Metals truck. I feel that I could load Total Reclaim if needed but would be very slow because I am not very experienced with the transition from parking lot to street.(7-6-2011)

Research printer reuse procedures and options. - started 3/25/11

• I have tested many printers and scanners. I am the primary contact for Rapid refill. I regularly work with Our printer bulk buyer, negotiating prices and entering and processing sales data. With the help of interns I have been able to keep the store and grants reasonably well supplied with printers. (7-6-2011)

Questions John is Pondering

Plastic to oil technology.

• Screws and springs are only potentially an issue for the shredding machinery perhaps we will be able to ship out audio cassettes and more intricate media once the data security has been achieved.

Robots will make human labor obsolete. - Someday mechanical separation of plastic, steel, aluminum, copper and possibly even circuit boards will meet or exceed environmental concerns about materials reclamation.

• Has this occurred and we just don't know about it?
• I assume that the plastic that enters the CBM shredder is degraded to a quality below E-plastic. Is it actually less reusable than Junk-plastic? If so will it still be true when Plastic-to-oil technology becomes available.
• Perhaps stripping aluminum drives has no environmental benefit. If so, is there sufficient economic incentive?

Is there a better way to manage dust in the warehouse?

• I imagine a weekly vacuuming of the warehouse floors and tabletops with a powerful shop-vac that has a filter that is appropriate for toner. Sweeping makes fine particles airborne and doesn't get into the cracks. When something is dropped on the floor or bench small clouds of dust form.
• An appropriate vacuum would need the capacity to handle screws, zipties and other scraps.
• Research added to: Toner Clean-up indicates that Electrostatic discharge-safe (ESD-safe) vacuums are necessary for toner spills (to prevent fire) and a HEPA filter would be necessary to keep Toner from becoming airborne.

What is needed to make printer island awesome again.

• Volunteer printer testers.
• Organize ink/toner storage.
• Financial justification: Value of GBM, value of (printer scrap $x/lb plus eplastic $0/lb) vs whole printers ?/lb), and value of printer sales.
• Mission based justification: Grants, Reuse, volunteer oppertunity, "doing our best". (It would be hard to justify taking apart audio cassettes but not printers.)

Current Projects

Alkaline Battery Reuse.

• We have some cheap battery testers that indicate good/bad. We are experimenting with selling them in the store. Alkaline Battery Reuse

Dust control

• I am researching vacuum cleaner options. We have been testing a cheap shopvac. The concept seems great, but the vacuum itself is awkward.
  • We could get a $400 backpack-style vacuum (filters $14/7). It would be serviceable at stark vacuums. It is relatively quiet and lightweight.

Cleaning safety glasses

• I have purchased microfiber cloths from costco ($0.50 each) that last about 2 weeks before they get greasy and dusty. Every morning, I shake the glasses in a small tub of hot water and then wipe them clean. This seems to work very well and volunteers comment about the nice glasses. Each morning the glasses are mostly filthy again, some are very bad.

As of Sept 1, 2011 we now have a used glasses bin so that volunteers always get fresh glasses.  

Glove sharing safety

• We now hang all gloves on a wire rack and used gloves go into a separate tub. This seems to reduce smell and moisture. Ideally no one is wearing gloves that have been used in the last 16 hours.
• My research shows that the OSHA hand protection standard requires shared gloves to be disinfected between uses. It is highly recommended that gloves be issued to individuals to avoid the need to disinfect them. There are health concerns (such as scabies, pink eye etc) related to shared gloves.
• There is growing momentum or enthusiasm for changing our practices. Experimental strategies have been authorized.
• In late august I took the gloves to a laundromat and washed them. washing took less than a half hour and cost $4 for two loads. Drying took another hour and didn't get them very dry. Hanging on our rack they finished drying within 36 hours. The process took about 2 hours of my time.
• Sprimngtime cleaners on Hawthorne would theoretically wash and dry them for $0.95/lb and we could just drop them off and pick them back up.
• Another option to explore is to get our own compact and portable washing machine.

Interesting "Facts" to Remember

• Lithium batteries all need to be taped if they are going to be shipped anywhere. This includes button batteries. Taking them anywhere other than Metro hazardous would require labor. It turns out that taping batteries is fairly easy and fast using volunteer labor. However, Metro metals offers us no discount for taping them.

• A H.E.P.A filter should catch toner. Some vacuums labeled hepa allow some air to leak past the filter. to vaccume large toner spills an Electrostatic discharge-safe vacuum is required to prevent explosion.