How to gain access to recycling centers?

[ghostdawg187]

I want to do it like Chyrosran and Wodan do it but somehow fail. I have written an e-mail to a big recycling company here in Germany and kindly asked if they would let me in and let me search on my own for garbage keyboards. The reaction was not so kindly and they told me that according to German law they are not allowed to let me search and take keyboards. Moreover, they blame the citizens, who according to the company, wish that their garbage will be properly disposed. If they would let me in they are not able to fulfill this demand.

Please tell me how you gain access to recycling centers? It seems that it is not legit. But according to Chyrosran and Wodan it seems that it is somehow accepted or tolerated by the people who actually work there. But what do you tell them on first occasion? Have you also been rejected?

As prices for keyboards more and more rise and more people get influenced by videos about vintage keyboards on youtube I have to take the next step and go into these recycling centers. But this is rather difficult.

[Fkazim]

I have done well sourcing vintage mechanical keyboards for cheap on places like eBay. Despite this I also am interested how to go about asking recycling centres for vintage keyboards.

[Wodan]

1. Don't write them emails, go there and visit them. Explain to them what your intentions are and proof to them you're serious about it.

2. Get a small business for the purpose of claiming these keyboards from the recycling plants. You've already figured out that by EU law, it is very difficult for them to let you have these keyboards since they are a business and you're a consumer and anything they sell you comes with an obligatory 12 months warranty. As soon as you can present a business, they can let you have the stuff without worrying about consumer rights.

3. Figure out what the local/regional collection points for electronics are. Don't just google shit and send out emails like you're trying to fill your application quota for the unemployment office. Get off your gaming chair, put on some pants and visit the places and talk to those people. Ideally look for non-corporate facilities - the ones that are publicly owned.

[matt3o]

Moreover, they blame the citizens, who according to the company, wish that their garbage will be properly disposed. If they would let me in they are not able to fulfill this demand.

okay first of all, that is bullshit, because the best way to recycle something is to actually keep using it. That's why you replace the old lightbulb with an LED one when it dies not before.

I don't know about Germany but here we have junk yards? They are private companies that basically take garbage out of companies, dismantle all the valuable components and resell them. They are usually small and ran by 2-3 people tops. They may ask you a few bucks if you take out really a lot of shit, but usually if you get a keyboard every once in a while they give it to you for free. The problem is that you have get lucky because you have to be there before they start dismantling things. Most keyboards I've found were without cables because of course the first thing they look for is copper.

[Muirium]

No junkyards here. The closest thing is metal scrapyards, and they don’t like civilians wandering inside any more. Our public recycling centres are just as serious about the dividing line between “customer” and processing. Once it’s crossed the threshold on arrival, it’s strictly no touch. Wire fences and NO TRESPASSING signs all included. And our recyclers are well staffed by surly men who will barely tell you where to throw your lightbulbs, let alone let you behind the wire.

Wodan is right. I’ve never done this, but it sure looks like you’ve got to make friends on the inside and cheat your way around the system.

[Chyros]

As Wodan said, avoid the corporate ones. As soon as my recycling centres turned corporate, they stopped selling electronics. The ones where I got along best with the guys let me have them anyway, but two of the centres did stop. The smaller companies never even so much as blinked.

Also, as he mentioned, go there and get in some face time. You're dependent on the goodwill of the people you're dealing with – this is much easier to get in person than by bounching emails. Also show that you're being serious about it, so be respectful, enthusiastic, and visit often. Countless times I took crap boards off them simply out of politeness xD . Seriously, getting a good relationship with these people is your absolute #1 priority in this matter.

[kbdfr]

1. […]Explain to them what your intentions are and proof to them you're serious about it.
2. Get a small business for the purpose of claiming these keyboards from the recycling plants. […]

At least regarding Germany, Wodan is absolutely right.
Recycling centers do not just collect junk, they are also responsible for their safe disposal.

Think of mercury thermometers instead of keyboards,
for example an accounting business wanting to replace all that old stuff in their offices with modern electronic devices.
They will not just simply throw them away, but have a recycling center dispose of them,
and of course expect the recycling center to not just hand them over to someone just kindly asking.

I for one wouldn’t like people who for whatever obscure reason are interested in just the glass tubes
pour the mercury down the drain.

And remember that our reasons are obscure for people not belonging to our elitist crowd

[ghostdawg187]

1. Don't write them emails, go there and visit them. Explain to them what your intentions are and proof to them you're serious about it.

I have sent them an e-mail since I live in the middle of nowhere (Greifswald, Baltic Sea) and from time to time I visit Dortmund. So I assume that I will not find some blue ALPS or Model F boards in one of the poorest regions of Germany, but I thought that the chances are higher in the area of Dortmund. I am not quite sure if it is worth the effort for this recycling center in such a poor region of Germany. But one day I will go there and look how they react and what I might find.

2. Get a small business for the purpose of claiming these keyboards from the recycling plants.

What kind of business shall I get? Are there any documents I have to fill out and where can I find them?

3. Figure out what the local/regional collection points for electronics are. Don't just google shit and send out emails like you're trying to fill your application quota for the unemployment office. Get off your gaming chair, put on some pants and visit the places and talk to those people. Ideally look for non-corporate facilities - the ones that are publicly owned.

Ok, I will do this. But I have never done gaming. I just do LaTeX and use all those wonderful keyboards for this kind of purpose

[kbdfr]

[…] I live in the middle of nowhere (Greifswald, […]

What kind of business shall I get? Are there any documents I have to fill out and where can I find them?

Gewerbeanmeldung in Greifswald:
https://www.greifswald.de/de/verwaltung ... anmeldung/
Cost: 26€, and you define the purpose of your business in your own words (preferably using rather general terms to avoid finding yourself restricted at a later time, e.g. "Reparatur von elektronischen Geräten").
Note you will have to do some (minimal and very simple) accounting if money is involved,
and taxes will be due in case of substantial profits

[ghostdawg187]

^^ wow, thanks mate! I definitely appreciate your effort. I will do this "Gewerbeanmeldung". But in first instance I will try to reach out to these people working there.

[Muirium]

The name’s Ghost. Private Investigator.

[kbdfr]

[…] Private Investigator.

Simply long life experience, coupled with a passion for logics and sort of a helper syndrome.
Unless, of course, there’s a reason for ranting

[SneakyRobb]

I have a bit of experience with this sort of thing. Random advice incoming.

It's a bit weird but I have found you can't really ask for or buy garbage/recycling easily. If you try to hard to buy it, it leaves the category of "garbage" and returns to being an "item of value." Or worse, they deny you flatly.

Instead, the other party needs to offer it to you for a free or nominal fee. This is done by finding the right source as others have said and then by building relationships. The best way to do this is by honestly sharing the passion for whatever you are trying to collect. This is especially true if the stuff can be recycled for even a small amount of money.

If you ask your contact/person to keep an eye out for X type of item, and you say "nah" almost everytime they find one, the relationship breaks down because its like the item is not worth your time, and thus their time is not worth a lot to you. This is why you must take so much junk. Sort of like Chyros mentioned above.

One way to manage this is do not go there with too much cargo space. For keyboards I would bicycle there with a large backpack. You even could drive most of the way there, then bike a few blocks to work up a sweat. Someone on a bicycle who is sweaty is dedicated. They must really like this stuff.

Going with a pickup truck is bad, even if you just happen to own a pickup truck. It looks like its a job/you are a scrap metal collector
and you invariably take too much. Even if they offer too much, if you take it somehow it still looks bad. Remember they probably sell the stuff and you can't be a competitor. If a boss sees you loading up a truck even with 1 item, they may step in. Some weird lanky person on a bike is much better. If you must drive, clean your car and vacuum it. Leave stuff in the trunk. Now you can't dirty the back seat with the extra items and the trunk can only hold so much.

Most of this is moot because you will often find very little of what you want. Of the perhaps 25 times I went, only 2 times did I find alps boards. Basically for me I left with mostly nothing or random useless/broken items and somehow would also be offered a yamaha music keyboard because its also a keyboard. Politely take the extra stuff you can and responsibly dispose of it at another place.

This is basically why I stopped going. It is pretty unlikely you will find what you are looking for, it is time consuming and frustrating. This was 2014 so I probably honestly found a few interesting boards that would have been cool now, but I didn't realize at the time.

Its kind of like going to goodwill, and trying to find interesting keyboards. Except you also have to become friends with the cashiers in addition to already happening to be there when the cool item arrives. Instead of the item going onto a shelf it goes into a shredder unless your friend finds the item, sets it aside, a boss doesnt see it, you arrive at the right time etc etc.



Finally I would again say that you need to talk about the passion for the item. If someone told you they were looking for keyboards to make fun review videos or collect/restore them as a hobby/to use with some antique computer. You might like that a lot more than if they told you they quickly flipped them for cash.... "maybe I could flip them for cash too," or "why would I help you make money?"




As an similar example one time I had recently done a college welding program and wanted to practice with scraps. Because I told people welding is fun, I got a small welder for christmas.

I emailed a few metal shops to ask for some scraps and got replies ranging from no, to very hefty price tags. I felt discouraged and sort of didn't follow through.

Later I was near one of the shops that said no for whatever reason. I went to in to ask if they had any scrap. The counter person told me to go onto the shop floor and ask the foreman. I chatted with him for a few minutes and said I wanted to buy some scrap to practice welding for fun. He asked me roughly what size I'd need. He then put a decent amount of random scrap into a cardboard box and said I could have it.

That time was pretty easy, but just going to the place and talking even for a few minutes can do wonders.

Edit: also to restate. I think if I did it now with the view of just finding any sort of interesting keyboards for fun instead of rejecting every non alps ones, It probably would have been a lot more enjoyable.

[Polecat]

As one who ran a surplus/recycling business I probably have a slightly different perspective on this.

First off, if the business is subsidized by the government there will be a fairly strict set of rules for them to follow. Here in California we get charged a "recycling fee" when we purchase certain items, and that money is (allegedly) distributed to recycling operations to help dispose of that equipment when we're done using it. CRTs were the big offender when I was in the surplus business, also certain types of batteries and copier/printer supplies. When you sign up for the government subsidies you have to sign a contract which specifies how the incoming and outgoing stuff will be tracked, usually by weight. I read through the paperwork, and decided it wasn't worth hiring another employee just to do the bureaucratic bullshit, but many companies do take advantage of that money. A few keyboards one way or the other wouldn't make any difference, but if you're contacting the company by phone or email (or even in person) how do they know that you're not a government employee checking up on whether they're violating the terms of the contract?

Our business was open to the public and we probably resold as much of the used equipment as we recycled for scrap. I tried to set aside the nicer stuff, and I even had a stash of keyboards in the back for the "special" customers. The folks we knew got special privileges not afforded to the troublemakers and whiners. I'm curious if any of the people I knew have found their way to this site? Anyway, face to face contact was the *only* way to get anywhere at our business. If you called or emailed asking for a specific item the invariable reply was, "Come down and dig". "Well I'm not going to drive all the way down there if you don't have what I want." "Well I'm not going to waste my time looking if you are just shopping around for the cheapest price." And so on...don't waste my time.

When dealing with a business that does *not* normally sell stuff you have to keep in mind that *you* are not the center of their universe. You're asking for a favor and not offering them anything in return. You're also wasting their time if you aren't spending any money. Don't expect special treatment, and this is probably the most important thing, don't bullshit them! Tell them up front what you're looking for and why, and make it easy for them, even if it costs you time or money to do so. Just my 3-1/2 cents.

[Muirium]

SneakyRobb and Polecat’s posts are well worth bearing in mind! This stuff may be a huge volume industry, but face to face contacts are what it’s all about.