Un-manufacturing: a story about E-waste

Shawn Price averages $1000 per month tearing down e-waste and scrapping the metal parts, all while running and funding the Kraxberger GearHeads robotics Club.

My housemates and I bought a rice cooker, and some of the segments in the count down timer were broken, so the manufacturer sent us a second rice cooker for free. What do you do with a partially broken rice cooker? Take it apart, of course!

After taking it apart we weren’t able to get it back into working condition, so it had to go to e-waste.

My friends Jamie and Alan at Fixit Clinic, located at the Noisebridge Hackerspace in San Francisco. Fixit Clinic runs the first Monday of every month. Sometimes we fix things, but no such luck for this rice cooker.

Recycling E-Waste: A More Profitable Venture?

I brought the rice cooker to the Teardown conference in Portland, where I met Shawn Price.

“You get more for it if you take it apart,” Shawn explains to me as he effortlessly dismantles my rice cooker with screwdrivers.

He points to a power supply. “These are 15 cents per pound whole, but when you take it apart you get the cost of the wire, power board, and metal case. The power boards are 35 cents per pound, and the wire is 55–60 cents per pound.”

A motherboard can get him a couple bucks. “I often go around neighborhoods ripping out computers and printers from the trash. People just don’t know what to do with them.” Donations are also accepted from businesses and the public.

Left: Board of a power supply beside low grade circuit board. Shawn takes off the transformers because they’re worth more money by themselves at the scrap yard. Right: A motherboard, which Shawn can get a couple bucks for.

Shawn runs a magnet over the heating element of my rice cooker: “If it doesn’t stick, it’s aluminum. Aluminum is often used for parts that touch food because it’s easier to clean, and it doesn’t rust.”

The price of metal fluctuates, but Shawn doesn’t bother to wait to recycle anything. “We can easily go through 1000 pounds a night with two mentors and three kids. I just bring it straight to the scrap yard.” Shawn uses a local scrap yard, called R. S. Davis Recycling.

And when Shawn says “kids,” he means actual children. Shawn works with a group of about 30 middle schoolers. “Kids will come in and they won’t even know what this” — Shawn holds up his screwdriver — “is. This kind of practical skillset is dying out.”

He helps out with the robotics club, as well as showing the kids how to recycle e-waste. Some of the e-waste money gets donated back to help fund the robotics club.

Photos of Shawn’s e-recycle pile

The Styrofoam and Plastic Problem

I’m really surprised to learn that Shawn throws all the plastic away. “You don’t get anything for plastic. They can recycle things like plastic bottles, but for most plastics you can’t really tell what it is — it doesn’t have a number on it. Some plastics give off poisonous gasses when they get melted down, and no one has time to sort it.”

There is a small local company named Agilyx recycling #6 plastics and even Styrofoam. Shawn is thinking about recycling Styrofoam, but he would need to ask people to pay for it to be recycled, or else he wouldn’t be able to do it feasibly since it takes up so much room on his truck.

Plastic bits from my rice cooker that have no recycling number on them, so you can’t tell what type of plastic they are.

From reading Junkyard Planet, I know that much of the scrap metal in the USA goes to China, but China has recently announced a ban on the import of certain types of scrap copper, which is predicted to completely disrupt the copper supply chain.

I ask Shawn about how tariffs and restrictions have affected his business, and he shrugs. “Whenever I hear anything about tariffs, the price always goes up, so it’s good for me. I guess they can’t go overseas as much for the scrap.”

You can tell that this is a low grade circuit board because of its color.

How Manufacturers Can Contribute to E-Waste Recycling Efforts

Finally, I want to know what advice Shawn has for manufacturers. “Drives me nuts that I can’t figure out how to get it broken down even further.” Perhaps if manufacturers designed the metal, plastic, and electronic parts of their products to be separated easily, the planet would be better for it.

Shawn mentions that putting the recycling numbers on plastics would make it easier, but he doesn’t think that’s the real answer. “We need to come up with a smarter solution. For example, some facilities have been able to figure out how to convert #6 plastic to fuel. The technology is what need to change.”

Even big pieces of plastic like this are put in the metal bin, because they are attached to a bit of metal. This type of thing is often recycled by being put through a grinder (~$5000), and then the metal pieces are extracted. In comparison a plastic only grinder is about $1000

Thanks to Shawn Price for recycling parts of my rice cooker and answering my questions. Thanks also to the Teardown conference for hosting him. If you want to support Shawn’s work with the children in the Kraxberger Gearheads robotics club, take a look at their fundraising page.