Recycling Handbook

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Standard Volunteer Tasks

Template

• Bins Required:
  • name
    • Size:
    • Contents:
    • QC into:
  • name
    • Size:
    • Contents:
    • QC into:

• Special tools:

• How to Teach:

• Special Notes:

Systems at the Bench

Tour of the Bench is a guide for staff and interns to use when teaching a volunteer to recycle at the Bench.
Basic System Deconstruction is a guide that volunteers can use to orient themselves to working at the Recycling Bench.

Optical Drives

This section is for desktop sized CD-ROM and DVD drives. Laptop size drives go into CBM.

• Bins Required:
  • Steel
    • Size: Meduim-large
    • Contents: Screws, the flat top plate and the bottom steel shell.
    • QC into: Schnitzer steel bin.
  • Circuit boards
    • Size: medium-small
    • Contents: Circuit boards that are green on both sides, with wires removed.
    • QC into: GBM gaylord
  • Plastic
    • Size: medium-small
    • Contents: Front Panel/Faceplate, media tray.
    • QC into: E-Plastic gaylord
  • "Everything Else", guts,
    • Size: Large
    • Contents: The interior mechanism of the drive which includes plastic, smaller metal pieces, wires and small or low grade circuit boards(brown/tan on one side).
    • QC into: CBM gaylord
  • CDs
    • When a cd/dvd falls out of the drive it can be set aside in a pile.
    • QC into: Box of CDs, or return to receiving.

• How to Teach:

Typically volunteers should start by removing the screws visible on the outside of the drive and the top steel plate. This should expose the main circuit board which should be carefully removed and cleaned of any wires. There is likely to be a second smaller circuit board that can stay on the plastic body of the drive. The large flat-head screwdriver should be used to pry the steel housing from the plastic drive mechanism. This steel shell will usually have a small plastic disc in it's center which can be removed by twisting the large flat head screwdriver between the plastic disc and the large steel housing.

Keyboards

Total Reclaim is now buying our keyboards whole, with cords removed. Manually disassembling them would result in a net loss of income. Keyboards are no longer a standard table task. 6-26-2014 -John

• Bins Required:
  • Hard Plastic
    • Size: Large (low-profile Rubbermaid are a good size & shape)
    • Contents: Keys and outer shell of Keyboard.
    • QC into: E-plastic gaylord, look for keys containing springs or metal parts.
  • Steel
    • Size: Large (Postal)
    • Contents: Screws, springs, plates, and metal rods from under keys.
    • QC into: Steel bin outside.
  • Filmy Plastic
    • Size: Medium
    • Contents: Filmy Plastic with Printed Silver Circuitry.
    • QC into: Put aside for separate slow-time task involving pulling apart the Filmy plastic layers.
  • Circuit Boards
    • Size: Small
    • Contents: Medium and Low Grade Circuit Boards
    • QC into: Medium Circuit Board gaylord and CBM gaylord
  • Wire
    • Size: Small
    • Contents: thin colored wire
    • QC into: Thin Wire gaylord

• How to Teach: Lift and remove all keys bigger than and including the 'Ctrl' key. Look for any rods or springs underneath these keys. Unscrew any screws holding the keyboard together. Separate the top and bottom. Remove any metal from the plastic, any wires, circuit boards, and the Filmy plastic with the Silver Circuitry. Put rubber pieces in trash-like bin underneath the table. Staff should QC this afterwards before dumping into trash outside.

Network Devices

• Bins Required:
  • Plastic
    • Size: postal bin
    • Contents: Plastic with little or no metal attached, no wires, LED's, switches.
    • QC Into: E-plastic Gaylord. Look out for missed screws and circuit boards.
  • Steel - Magnetic Metal
    • Size: rubbermaid
    • Contents: Mostly for interior metal and screws.
    • QC into: Use magnets to test for steel, can be dumped by staff member into Steel Bin outside.
  • Circuit Boards
    • Size: Medium clear bin
    • Contents: Medium and Low Grade Circuit Boards
    • QC into: Medium Grade Circuit board gaylord and CBM gaylord.
  • Everything Else
    • Size: medium white bin
    • Contents: Low Grade Cicuit Board, Wires, Non-Magnetic Metal, Wires/Cables, filmy plastic, or any other left over bits.
    • QC into: CBM gaylord, Trash, Dirty Plastic, Thin Colored Wires

• Special tools: Magnets for metal testing steel
• How to Teach: Unscrew all visible screws in order to separate metal and plastic. Test the different metals for magnetic properties. Remove any circuit boards.

Daughter Cards

• Bins Required:
  • Circuit Boards
    • Size:Medium to Large
    • Contents: Cards needing no further deconstruction, Mid and Low Grade Circuit Boards, RAM & processors.
    • QC into: CAT 3 Barrel, CBM gaylord, and Medium Grade Circuit Board Gaylord
  • Steel
    • Size: Medium to Large
    • Contents: Steel/ Magnetic Metal
    • QC into: Steel Bin outside by Staff Member or Intern. (watch for button batteries)
  • Everything Else
    • Size: Medium to Large
    • Contents: Batteries, Aluminum (heat sinks), and Fans.
    • QC into: Battery containers, Non-magnetic metal, and CBM.

PC-Cards (PCMCIA Cards)

• Bins Required:
  • Circuit Boards
    • Size: Medium
    • Contents: Circuit boards w/o batteries
    • QC into: CAT3 (see Special Notes)
  • CBM
    • Size: Medium
    • Contents: the metal shells
    • QC into: CBM
  • Everything Else
    • Size: Medium
    • Contents: Plastic, Batteries
    • QC into: E-Plastic, Battery bin(s)

• Special tools:
  • 6 inch Pliers or Wire-Cutters, Medium-sized Flat Screwdriver
• How to Teach: Snip off a corner of the Card, this will allow you to pull off 1 of the metal shells, exposing the Circuit Board (you may find it easier to insert the Screwdriver into the hole created with the Pliers & pry off the shell). Remove the Circuit Board, remove any Battery you find.
• Special Notes: the grade of the Circuit Boards is not finalized

Floppy Drives (aluminum chassis only)

• Aluminum
• Steel (covers, screws, etc)
• Circuit boards (controller card)
• Misc (motors, plastic/steel mix, cable/wire)

Heat Sink Fan Combos (ZIF only)

• Fans, Wires, Plastic
• Aluminum (heat sinks)
• Processors
• Steel (screws, clips, brackets)

Hard Drives

• Bins Required:
  • Chassis
    • Size: medium -They get heavy fast
    • Size, special: Milk crates leak and are not recommended for laptop drives or when harvesting magnets.
    • Contents: All parts of the hard drive except for the circuit board including screws and attached foam pads.
    • QC into: HD chassis gaylord
  • Circuit Boards
    • Size: medium or Small
    • QC into: Category 3 circuit board barrel
  • Trash
    • Size: Trash Cans
    • Contents: loose foam pads and rubber covers
    • QC into: Garbage dumpster

• Special tools:
  • A "HD Toolkit" has been created -contains Torx 6, Torx 4, Phillips 00 for laptop size drives.

• How to Teach:
  • Separate the Circuit board from everything else by removing all screws that are on the circuit board.(other screws are irrelevant unless harvesting magnets) We have a special toolkit for the smaller screws on 2 1/2 inch drives. Once the circuit board is loose it should be cleaned of any foam rubber. The screws and main body of the drive can go into the chassis container.

• Special Notes:
  • We now have the tools required to remove the boards from 2 1/2 inch drives. In the past we have instructed volunteers to pry off the thin circuit boards so that they rip neatly around the screws. The "HD Toolkit" is 1 Torx-6, 1 Torx-4, 1 Phillips #00.
  • Hard drives with shattered platters (usually 2 1/2 inch drives) should arrive in a separate container. Give the volunteers a tray to catch the spillage, it can be poured into the chassis container.

• Alternate method
  • Magnet Harvesting:
    • When harvesting magnets from the drive, volunteers should be instructed to skip any difficult or drives. Some drives get warped by the drill and torquing too hard has broken many tools.

Laptop Docks

Notice: As of now we are auto-recycling Gateway and IBM brand docks unless they have exceptional features such as cd drives or slots for Hard drives or PCMCIA cards.

• Bins Required:
  • Top Section of Dock
    • Size: Medium to Large
    • Contents: Top part of Docking Station, no further deconstruction needed
    • QC into: Keep in Bin for next stage of deconstruction
  • Bottom Section of Dock
    • Size: Medium to Large - bottom half of dock is typically heavier than top.
    • Contents: Bottom part of Docking station, no further deconstruction needed
    • QC into: Keep in Bin for next stage of deconstruction

• How to Teach: We have split Laptop Docks into two tasks. The first task involves seperating the top and bottoms of the Docking Station, with no further deconstruction. This allows one volunteer to use (in most cases) 1 size screwdriver for all the docks, instead of using different tools to complete the entire deconstruction.

Laptop Dock - Tops

• Bins Required:
  • Plastic
    • Size: Medium to Large
    • Contents: Plastic with little or no metal attached.
    • QC Into: E-plastic Gaylord. Look out for missed screws and circuit boards.
  • Magnetic Metal
    • Size: Medium
    • Contents: Mostly for interior metal and screws.
    • QC into: Use magnets to test for steel, can be dumped by staff member into Steel Bin outside.
  • Non-magnetic Metal
    • Size: Medium
    • Contents: Non-magnetic metal on interior, usually Aluminum.
    • QC into: New bin and place behind advanced recycling on floor near sign or on shelf marked Non-Magnetic Metal.
  • Everything Else
    • Contents: Low Grade Cicuit Board, Wires, filmy plastic, or any other left over bits.
    • QC into: Low Grade Circuit Board Barrel, Trash, Dirty Plastic, Thin Colored Wires

• Special tools: Magnets for metal testing
• How to Teach: Unscrew all visible screws in order to separate metal and plastic. Test the different metals for magnetic properties. Remove any circuit boards.

Laptop Dock - Bottoms

• Bins Required:
  • Plastic
    • Size: Medium to Large
    • Contents: Plastic with little or no metal attached.
    • QC Into: E-plastic Gaylord. Look out for missed screws and circuit boards.
  • Magnetic Metal
    • Size: Medium
    • Contents: Mostly for interior metal and screws.
    • QC into: Use magnets to test for steel, can be dumped by staff member into Steel Bin outside.
  • Circuit Boards
    • Size: Medium to Large
    • Contents: Mid Grade Circuit Boards.
    • QC into: Into mid Grade Circuit Board bin, Look out for low grade smaller circuit boards.
  • Everything Else
    • Contents: Non- Magnetic Metal, Low Grade Circuit Board, Wires, filmy plastic, or any other left over bits.
    • QC into: Non-Magnetic Metal Bin, Low Grade Circuit Board Barrel, Trash, Dirty Plastic, Thin Colored Wires

• Special tools: Magnets for metal testing
• How to Teach: Unscrew all visible screws in order to separate metal and plastic. Test the different metals for magnetic properties. Carefully remove any circuit boards.

Advanced volunteer tasks

Aluminum Drives

Alternate: Include them with zip drives and simply separate into: GBM and CBM

• Bins Required:
  • Mid-grade Circuit Boards
  • Cast Aluminum
    • Contents: Clean Aluminum chassis with no steel, brass or other bits.
    • QC into: Clean Cast Aluminum Barrel
  • CBM
    • Contents: Everything else including: motors, steel/screws, wires, plastic, low grade circuit boards, steel that did not come off pure.

• Special tools:
  • Power drill if appropriate
  • Phillips bit #2 and occasionally #1

• How to Teach:
  • Stress that with the power drill it is easy to strip screws and that stripped screws make aluminum unclean.

• Special Notes:
  • John's Experiment
    • In one hour of uninterrupted work with the corded power drill I disassembled 21 large 5.25 inch aluminum drives. Smaller drives have low grade boards and more annoying screws. (In John's opinion smaller drives may not be worth the effort.)

this yielded:
14 lbs of cast aluminum
18 lbs of motors
1.5 lbs of midgrade circuit boards.
1 lb of junk plastic
unknown quantity of steel that has the aproximate value of CBM
unknown quantity of cbm (steel plastic and wire)

notes: I stripped 2 screws which i was able to remove quickly. I set aside 2 drives that looked like they would require excessive effort. I'll cbm them or clean them enough for dirty aluminum. My focus was on separating motors and midgrade circuit boards, I let everything else that came off of the drive pile up and go into a cbm, unless it happened to be clean plastic.

Battery Sorting and Boxing

• See Sorted Batteries
• Ask John or Liane for more details

Zip and Tape Drives

The bins are the same as Optical drives. More than 50% of the boards are category 3 GBM because they are practically identical to HD cards. I will occasionally offer these to a volunteer or two at the table while others are doing optical drives, or transition to them after optical drives. A T6 and maybe a PH00 is required. Jashcraft 01:44, 9 August 2012 (UTC)

Wood Bearing Material (speakers)

Typically found on older speakers and A/V equipent, electronic devices with wood attached to them must be separated in order to put the wood in the trash and Recycle any metal, plastic, and in some cases Circuit Boards.

If wood can be removed simply by unscrewing, you can prepare the items inside the warehouse near the Deconstruction pallet near the Advanced Recycling Incoming sign. You can do this either on the cord cutting cart or on the rolling cart.

If the wood cannot be removed by unscrewing or gently prying apart from the remaining electronic components or case, it is recommended that a staff member or intern take it outside to be smashed (carefully) with the sledge hammer located behind the Recycling check-in desk.

Once the wood is removed, it can be placed in the dumpster behind the warehouse on the left as you walk out of the roll up door.

Remaining components will typically go into CBM.

UPSs (Uninterruptable Power Supplies)

• Bins Required:
  • Cords
    • Size: Large
    • Contents: Cords
    • QC into: Cords Gaylord
  • Steel Shell
    • Size: Large
    • Contents: Steel Sshells
    • QC into: Schnitzer Steel Box
  • Batteries
    • Name: Square Milk Crates
    • Contents: Batteries
    • QC into: Square Milk Crates

• Special tools:
  • Large Wire Cutters

• How to Teach:

REMOVE THE BATTERY FIRST. Explain that there might still be some charge remaining in the battery, & that cutting the cord will cause sparks & will damage the wire cutters. Explain that there is no risk of getting a shock. Put batteries into the Milk Crates. Cut Cords. If it was neccessary to disassemble the UPS to remove the battery, keep the Steel Shell for the Schnitzer Steel Box.

• Special Notes:
  • REMOVE THE BATTERY FIRST! STRESS THIS & WATCH FOR CONFUSION/MISTAKES.

Motherboards

• See Motherboard Recycling.
• See also Clean Circuitboards

Bench Setup for Motherboards

• The volunteer group Central City Concern disassembles motherboards every Tuesday morning. The following are instructions for re-configuring the bench in preparation for their arrival.

Supplies =

these are up above the MoBo/Cards shelves by the windows =

2 very big pink plastic bins,

the "MoBo Job Samples" box which contains =

(the following you might have to scrounge from Recycling (but the box should have been preloaded during last week's cleanup, see "Notes" below) =

CD bins (for button batteries) - 6,

RAM - 6 to 12 sticks,

Slot Procs - 6

Button Cell Batteries - 6 to 12,

Socket Procs - 6 to 12,

Heatsink Aluminum - 6,

Fans (from Heatsink/Fan combos) - 6,

Plastic Proc/Heatsink brackets.

Rolling Steel Cart =

have volunteers empty it saturday nite,

install the 2 very big pink bins to hold the MoBos.

Non-Magnetic Metal & Small Steel buckets =

let them be empty, except for a little seeding.

BenchTop =

Red Bucket =

2 sticks of RAM

1 Slot Proc

White Bucket =

some screws

CD bin =

2 ButtonCell Batteries

yellow bowl (from Recycling) =

Socket Procs

UnderBench =

upper left (Speakers & Fans) bin =

Fans from Heatsink/Fan combo

upper right (drives) bin =

Plastic

lower left (MoBo) bin =

steel brackets / small steel

lower right (MoBo) bin =

heatsink Aluminum

MoBos ready to be processed =

2 bins on each bench, twixt the workstations,

2 to 4 more stacked at each end of the bench area, near the systems pile & the Cords gaylord.

GBM gaylord =

if it is more than 1/2 full, swap it out to gaylord country, we'll fill it for sure, & it's easier than having to swap it part way through the MoBo shift, or leaving it for the afternoon shift.

Notes:

We now ask the volunteers to disassemble Slot procs - the Proc can go with RAM; fan, plastic, screws as usual.

While the volunteers are at lunch convert the bench to the Desktops task.

Also this is a handy time to reload the Samples box for next week.

Batteries =

  We do not ask volunteers to remove older "Dallas" style batteries because these batteries too closely resemble IC chips that are soldered
  onto the MoBos.  Same with cylyndrical batteries - they look too much like capacitors.  Removing parts that are soldered onto the board involves breaking the board, which is a safety issue. 

future changes being considered =

combining RAM & both Proc styles into 1 bin?

Staff Only

non-E Plastic

• Acrylic:
  • By the Gaylord (small amounts can be in a bag or box).
• PP Natural (cloudy clear plastic, usually semi rigid packaging)
  • & DVD cases (cloudy clear plastic, rigid):
  • Combine into clear bags.
• Plastic #1 and #3:
  • Combine into clear Bags.
• Black Plastic = DVD cases (black or other non-clear Colors),
  • Cassette, Jewel Cases (black or other non-clear Colors),
  • Soft hinged CD Cases (black or other non-clear Colors):
  • Combine into boxes or Gaylords.
• Clear Plastic = Cassette, Jewel Cases (Clear),
  • Casette (Thicker than Jewel Case plastic, slightly Opaque):
  • Combine into boxes or Gaylords.
• VHS tapes:
  • By the Box (or Gaylord).
• Mixed Rigid aka Mixed Plastic (this will be baled):
  • By the Gaylord.

Wireless Alliance - cell phones

The Wireless Alliance accepts:

   All cell phones, smart phones, PDA’s, iPods, digital cameras, and iPads regardless of age or condition
   Chargers
   Rechargeable cell phone batteries
   All accessories including: bluetooth, air cards, clips and cases
   Paper manuals and plastic packaging

May 2014 notes from John:

• Cameras Digital (and film) are being sold to a bulk buyer for an art project. Please deliver these to bulk sales after removing batteries and data cards. Unless they are good enough to reuse through the store, obviously.
• Chargers that are not clearly matched up with a phone: please send them to wherever you would normally send power adaptors.
• Batteries should be left inside of devices. Loose batteries would need to be individually bagged for the wireless alliance, or sent to recycling for further processing.
• Cases, manuals and packaging that appear to be garbage can be recycled or trashed here.

Historical note: In her last week, Liane just did a quality control check on a box of cell phones for the wireless alliance. Liane said that she would like to stop including manuals, cords and power adaptors with the cellphones. The paper can be recycled, the cords/power adaptors can be delivered to recycling staff. We don't get paid for this material, so there is no need to ship it. Leather or rubber cases can be thrown in the trash. Loose batteries should never be included in the box, they are a fire hazard. Batteries inside of the devices can stay.

Filmy Plastic

• Filmy Plastic (it stretches before it tears),
  • Separate Clear from Colored:
    • Clear Filmy goes into Clear plastic bags, Colored goes into Black plastic bags.