China bans toxic American computer junk

I wonder what the permitting hassles, etc, would be. If you actually listed yourself as a disposal center, you might have to get hazardous waste permits. I also wonder about the economic viability of such an enterprise. People might pay to dispose of old computers if they think they'll be recycled. However, many consumers think because they paid $2500 for a system two years ago that it's still worth $1000. And if a dumpster behind the Circle-K is more convient, well, it may well wind up there. Once you have scrap (and have picked it clean, requiring a secondary warehouse and museum space), can you economically separate the chaff from the wheat? Austin Electronics has about 200 13" VGA displays in the back. They can't toss them, and no one wants to buy them. Do you accept this kind of material? If a person can't dispose the whole kit and kaboodle at one shot, they're much less likely to bother with recycling. Do you hire cheap labor and build systems for homeless people? Strip components and eBay them? Try to do metal separation? I'm not putting down the idea by any means (and I'd love to have such a place to browse), but can one reallistically make some above a subsistence-level enterprise out of it? Are there are cases that are successful? What's the operational cost of such a facility? Are you willing to ship systems? Do you have systems work shipping? I'd want to start a business I can sooner or later oversee, and not sweat next months building payment at the end of the month. --John -----Original Message----- From: cctalk-admin(a)classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-admin@classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of Tothwolf Sent: Saturday, June 08, 2002 13:46 To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org Subject: Re: China bans toxic American computer junk On Sat, 8 Jun 2002, Joe wrote: I'd like to start something here in Houston, but I currently lack the warehouse space that would be required. It might be good to have places on both coasts and the central US. It certainly might make it easier to ship the big-iron from one coast to the other ;) -Toth