FAQ

I have always had a problem with this part of the FAQ. These people are our friends, as they often get the real gems. They do not always get the big stuff - one time I saw a bunch of Tempest rated PCs, and NeXT equipment, all on the same pile. The precious metal content of a big mini or mainframe can be quite a lot (check out <www.mrsscrap.com> and you will see what I mean), so the way they recycle is all based on ecomomics. Obviously, the gold is stripped first - it is the cream. The copper is probably next on the list, obtained by grinding the circuit boards and wires into powder. The rest is not worth it, literally. It is far too labor intensive to completely strip a computer down to basic metals - the money made would all go into paying the grunts! The labor in China is very cheap (actually, the strippers are young men that work like dogs for 2-3 years to make thier dowry money), thus the frames, disks, and power supplies get shipped overseas. William Donzelli william(a)ans.net