davezawadi (David Stone):

I assure you that it does, but in many cases, suitable recyclable things are not available. How can you recycle a printed circuit board (often epoxy glass or thermosetting paxolin), the components used, the semiconductors etc. I can sell you a cheap Pentium or Xeon processor or old types of memory if you find them useful, but Windows 10 isn't a lot of good using these. I still have some 16 kb RAMs somewhere from the 80's, they are not much use except as possibly hardcore in concrete. Can you change a 1000 pin BGA chip with any chance of success if it fails? I rather doubt it. One could blame technology but have you tried to recycle a wind turbine? All the same problems there, particularly the blades (tons of epoxy glass), or the power inverter? That is a problem for next year when we are guaranteed to have 300,000 of a 1MW size! Pigs may fly.

The computer industry is in many ways a special case because it is entirely dominated by a single company which insists on obsoleting perfectly good software systems every few years thus forcing users to buy new hardware.  Those components you mention would build into a useful computer


I couldn't change a 100pin BGA in my garage today but I have done so in the lab in the past.   The electronic kit I designed was expected to last long.  A project commissioned in 1985 was still running when I retired in 2010

davezawadi (David Stone):

I assure you that it does, but in many cases, suitable recyclable things are not available. How can you recycle a printed circuit board (often epoxy glass or thermosetting paxolin), the components used, the semiconductors etc. I can sell you a cheap Pentium or Xeon processor or old types of memory if you find them useful, but Windows 10 isn't a lot of good using these. I still have some 16 kb RAMs somewhere from the 80's, they are not much use except as possibly hardcore in concrete. Can you change a 1000 pin BGA chip with any chance of success if it fails? I rather doubt it. One could blame technology but have you tried to recycle a wind turbine? All the same problems there, particularly the blades (tons of epoxy glass), or the power inverter? That is a problem for next year when we are guaranteed to have 300,000 of a 1MW size! Pigs may fly.

The computer industry is in many ways a special case because it is entirely dominated by a single company which insists on obsoleting perfectly good software systems every few years thus forcing users to buy new hardware.  Those components you mention would build into a useful computer


I couldn't change a 100pin BGA in my garage today but I have done so in the lab in the past.   The electronic kit I designed was expected to last long.  A project commissioned in 1985 was still running when I retired in 2010