Covering Recycling On A Daily Basis

Day to Day Requirements

• Volunteers - Many show up at 11 and again at 3, though walk-ins and odd shifts exist on a daily basis. You need to get them started, after a brief explanation of where things go, they can work (for the most part) with little supervision. Get them acquainted with the bins and show or explain how to tear apart a system, or other project.
  • Other projects available besides tearing systems apart, are
    • sort processors into 4 categories ( lots of gold and ceramic base, some gold, very little gold with plastic base, slot type processors)
    • floppies (plastic, aluminum, steel)
    • vhs or other tapes ( remove screws and other metal)
    • dismantle floppy drives, networking devices, random items on the shelf
    • motherboard advanced recycling (remove aluminum, ram, procs, batteries)
    • daughter boards ( remove steel face plate)
    • remove hard drive circuit boards ( my favorite)

All of these tasks can be done at the table, and are easy for people with limited mobility.

• Also make sure the first batch of monitors for burn-in is set up and try to find a monitor tester. While monitor testing is not strictly a recycling task, it is in the recycling coordinator's best interest to have monitors cycling through the warehouse quickly and efficiently. Try to get testers to stack monitors for recycling into gaylords as they go.

• As gaylords become full, they will have to be switched out for new ones. Use the pallet jack to move the full bin over to the rows of gaylords waiting to leave. Sweep out the empty space if it needs it (it does) and place a new pallet on the floor with the slots facing out (so it can be moved when it, in turn, is full). Take a gaylord from the stack and lug it over by the pallet. Unfold it into box shape and choose an end to be the bottom. Fold the flaps inward to form the bottom and place it on the pallet. There is a right way to align the gaylord with the pallet; if it seems wide and shallow, you have it on wrong.

Areas of Recycling

Warehouse Organization

Once bins fill up and are replaced, they should be placed in designated areas to reduce the work involved in taking inventory and getting shipments out the door. Write on the gaylords whats in them. There should be 3 rows of full gaylords in the waiting area, far west row monitors and plastic(on top), and the rest can be mixed for BEAR. There are gaylords placed at the end of the rows of shelfs, one for cords, and 2 for recycled monitors. Also, 1 gaylord sits next to the Testing shelf, laptop bottoms go in here.

Monitor stacking tips: When stacking monitor into a gaylord, PLEASE, set them in Tetris-style, which means optimizing the space. Usually, 3 levels of 5 to 6 monitors will fit in a gaylord. They can be set on their base, top or side, NEVER on the glass. The lid still needs to close, rather have fewer monitors in there than overload.

The Bench

Almost every tool needed to de-manufacture a computer will be given to each volunteer in a toolbox. This box has a list of tools and needs to be turned in complete to staff at the end of the volunteer's shift. Screws should be put into small containers and get dumped directly into the steel dumpster. Gloves, dust masks, and safety glasses can be found next to the tool check in/out desk and should always be pointed out to volunteers. Youth under 1 6years of age are required to wear gloves, all other volunteers are encouraged to wear them. There also is a small first aid kit. Tell the volunteers that if they run across something you didn't cover, run into a problem or forget where stuff goes, just set it aside and ask you the next time they see you, and then make sure they see you often enough for this to work. If you also cannot deal with it, place it in a box for someone to deal with later.

Baskets/Bins Under The Bench

There are a few trays under the bench. They are to be used for the parts that need to go to Advanced Recycling (processors, motherboards, daughter boards, fans, speakers). Bins should be emptied frequently, or replaced with new crates/bins.

These other components should be send to Advanced Recycling:

• Aluminum - Aluminum can be identified with a magnet; it is metal that will not stick at all. This qualification may confuse it with stainless, but aluminum is rarely used as thin or shiny, it is usually colored and thick. Quite often there will be some kind of steel apparatus to hold a heat sink to a motherboard, this should be removed and placed in the small steel bin. Fans are also embedded in heat sinks and should be removed and placed with the fans. This work gets done by a trained person in Advanced Recycling.

• Hard Drives - In general, we shouldn't see hard drives in the systems. They should have been removed in Evaluation. But since we do find them, they should be given to a staff member or taken back to Evaluation. You might have to point out the obvious difference between hard drives and other drives; hard drives have no door to allow things to be put inside. You may need to explain this many times if hard drives keep showing up in the drive bin.

• Batteries - These toxic nastys are to be gathered and sorted into two categories:

1. rechargeable
2. not rechargeable

and then the nonrechargeable are sorted into

1. alkaline
2. NiCad
3. lithium
4. Button cells.

Once they are sorted they are being taken to Metro Recycling. Due to leakage of batteries latex gloves should be worn during the process of sorting .

The Main Gaylord Area

Gaylords get double stacked in 4 rows. The 2 western rows are for Total Reclaim, monitors and plastic. The 2 eastern rows have all the stuff that eventually goes to BEAR. Sometimes Bulk Sales or Printerland will be storing items in one of the rows for a short time. After forklifting a gaylord over there, make sure to write on the outside of the box what's in it. Makes it easier for us to estimate pick ups, and decide what needs to get shipped. All other stuff that gets deposited there will end up as recycled material if left for too long. But don't take this as an invite :)

The Slow Fill Gaylord/Barrel Area

Dirty aluminum, laptop screens and hard drive chassies have gaylords here. Only trained advanced recyclers should be putting stuff in them. The barrels against the western wall are for different metals like extruded/cast/sheet aluminum, and stainless steel.The cardboard barrel is reserved for hard drive controller cards(Hallmark). The lids will tell you what goes in them. However, only trained advanced recyclers should be putting stuff in them. Mistakes will cost Free Geek precious monetary resources, or time in resorting them.

We also store our empties here. One stack pallets and gaylords each for BEAR(B) and Total Reclaim(T).