What happens to old CRT monitors?

[Chronos]

At our local tip, they simply take the CRT, sit it on a table, a guy
smashes it with a big hammer enough to get to the yoke and get it
off,

You must live near me. I have yet to see anyone care about anything
other than the yoke on a CRT based display and a hammer is indeed the
tool of choice. However, judging from the replies thus far, it seems
we are the exception rather than the rule.

 

[Peter Hill]

You must live near me. I have yet to see anyone care about anything
other than the yoke on a CRT based display and a hammer is indeed the
tool of choice. However, judging from the replies thus far, it seems
we are the exception rather than the rule.

I bet they don't even discharge the HV from the tube. One day it will
bite them. Not a little nip like the lighting that caps have in them
but a full on bolt from the blue. Even TV/CRT caps can kill but most
do live to tell the tale, very few can tell about the HV.

Or nip the end off the tube to allow air in at a controlled rate. OK
breaking the electron gun end is moderately safe until they hit the
one that implodes.

 

[Tony Houghton]

In <[email protected]>,

There's quite a collection of videos [on youtube] now.

I heard of a couple of old Pegson rammers for sale and was going to
buy them, one for a friend so we could have races. Unbelievably they
went for over £150 each, non-working (though only needed their
magnetos rewinding), too rich for me. Wish I'd bought a few when they
were £30 - £50, it's amazing what's a good investment nowadays

How do they work? On at least one of the videos I can see what looks
like a puff of exhaust smoke on each bounce, and there was one guy who
looked as if he was (unsuccessfully) trying to start his by bouncing it
up and down. Is the piston connected directly to the business end
instead of having a crankshaft?

 

[Rob Morley]

In <[email protected]>,

There's quite a collection of videos [on youtube] now.

I heard of a couple of old Pegson rammers for sale and was going to
buy them, one for a friend so we could have races. Unbelievably they
went for over £150 each, non-working (though only needed their
magnetos rewinding), too rich for me. Wish I'd bought a few when
they were £30 - £50, it's amazing what's a good investment nowadays

How do they work? On at least one of the videos I can see what looks
like a puff of exhaust smoke on each bounce, and there was one guy who
looked as if he was (unsuccessfully) trying to start his by bouncing
it up and down. Is the piston connected directly to the business end
instead of having a crankshaft?

Yes - it's basically a 2-stroke engine with no crank.

 

[Tony Houghton]

In <20100324131410.4c7907da@bluemoon>,

Yes - it's basically a 2-stroke engine with no crank.

Although I did find a manufacturer's website which had 4-stroke
versions, which must be a real engineer's headache in comparison (like a
Prius' Atkinson engine).

 

[jerryg50]

What happens to old CRT monitors when the PC disposal man turns up in
his white van to take them away? The company I work for has just got
rid of a huge quantity of monitors.

Surely they do get recycled somehow or is it landfill? The tube has all
sorts of toxic nasties in it.

--
(\__/)
(='.'=) Bunny says Windows 7 is Vi$ta reloaded.
(")_(") http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/windows_7.png

Recycling the old CRT monitors is a very expensive process to do it locally. Most of the time they end up in land fills.

Some years ago the old useless TV and computer equipment was being shipped off to some Asian and African countries for extremely low cost dissasembly. Then there was the task of retrieving the metals inside some of the components. There are many chemicals used in the components, and breaking them opened is a terrible health hazard.

The picture tube is a terrible hazard for the environment. The glass contains lead. The front face has very toxic chemicals and phosphors. In the phosphor composition there is a small amount of mercury. As for this type of part it is very difficult and expensive to recycle.

As for the plastic case, and the main metal parts these can be easier recycled, but at a high cost. Making new plastic and using new metal is much cheaper than recycling. With metals, in many applications the alloy may be critical. This is another issue.

In the end, I've been told that 90% of the disposed CRT monitors end up in land fills!

Fortunately the new LCD monitors will last a lot longer, and are much less an impact on the environment when they have to be disposed of. Their main issue is the back-plane lamps. These lamps are something like the CFL lamps, but they last a long time.


Jerry G.