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• Reputation: 1962 Q&A: 32 0 1 1965 663 0 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Follow Following 2 elenchos

  8 0 Fixing that type of appliance would cost more than buying a new one. Nobody could run a business that did that. Get a screwdriver and take it apart into as many small pieces as you can. Use a big hammer to smash apart whatever you can't unscrew. All the bits that are metal or more than 50% metal go in a box, the rest in the trash can. Whenever your box is full of metal, drive it to the Seattle solid waste transfer station and dump it on top of the scrap metal pile. Unfortunately you can't just add that type of metal to your recycling bin. I drop off a box of scrap metal once or twice a year, mostly bottle caps since you're not supposed to put caps smaller than 3" in the recycle bin. We live in a disposable society where it is cheaper to buy new things than fix old things. In his interesting (but sadly flawed) book Shop Class as Soulcraft Matthew B. Crawford argues that we should build a different economy that does value repairing things instead of junking them, but it's unclear how we get there from here. Some countries in Europe have regulations that all the plastics an appliance is made of have to be of the same type, to make recycling more practical. Others have rules that require manufacturers to take back everything they make, putting the problem of recycling in the lap of those who designed the thing. Food for thought. One thing you can do now is replace your broken iron with a used one from a thrift store or Craigslist instead of buying a new one that will inevitably become landfill some day. elenchos answered in Whatever over 2 years ago | Report 4 comments by Jon, elenchos, and Jon… 0 0 Is it free to dump scrap metal, or is it the $20 or whatever transfer station minimum? Jon commented over 2 years ago | Report 0 0 It's free, no minimum. There is a separate lane for recyclers so you don't have to wait in line behind people dumping landfill, and they don't need to weigh your vehicle. If you do have garbage too, you have to go around twice, once for the recycling and once to be weighed before and after for the garbage. Unless you want to pay for the weight of the scrap metal. Hours, locations, etc are here: http://tinyurl.com/y25csyu Here's the metal rule. It looks like now it says you can't recycle bottle caps, or anything else, smaller than 3" because it jams the equipment. Pity. http://tinyurl.com/y4deh7n They really ought to figure out a way to recycle small bits of metal. elenchos commented over 2 years ago | Report 0 0 Hm.. I've been throwing metal of any size into my recycling for years. I guess I'll stop doing that. Jon commented over 2 years ago | Report 0 0 "we should build a different economy that does value repairing things instead of junking them, but it's unclear how we get there from here" Not manufacturing cheap $20 microwaves/irons/etc is an obvious way. If the item is well built, not only will it last longer, but it will rarely be cheaper to buy a new one than have it repaired. Then again, it seems people would rather spend $20 on a toasters that break in a year than $50 on a toaster than lasts 3 years. Jon commented over 2 years ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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