Comment

Comment on DRAM prices are spiking, but I don't trust the industry's reasons why

Will these ever be useful on the second hand market

Nope, not ever.

They will be disposed of (“recycled”), since that grants the largest asset depreciation tax break. The grand majority of all data center gear gets trashed instead of reused or repurposed through the second hand market.

Source: I used to work at a hardware recycling facility, where much of the perfectly good hardware was required to be shredded, down to the components, because of these stipulations. It’s such a waste.

source

Sort:hotnew top

treadful@lemmy.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
That’s really disheartening. Not because of my want for cheap RAM, but for the sheer waste of it all.

source
- SuiXi3D@fedia.io ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  That's just how electronics recycling is, though. The amount of labor it would take to save all those SMT and BGA components is ridiculous and, honestly, is a pretty specialized skill even if it is easy to learn. The logistics of scale really makes it unreasonable, especially when simpler components can be had for literal pennies. There's a point where the material cost of the copper is worth more than the labor it takes to do anything else with the board, and it happens a lot sooner than you think.
  
  source
  - treadful@lemmy.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    I think when the economics of destroying a thing is better than reusing a thing, we should maybe have some sort of incentives toward reuse.
    
    I get that the logistics of setting up what’s basically a secondary supply chain is difficult, but I’ve got to believe it would be for the better.
    
    source
    mojofrododojo@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    
    I get that the logistics of setting up what’s basically a secondary supply chain is difficult, but I’ve got to believe it would be for the better.
    
    hear me out: an org that guaranteed destruction of any residual data and ensured that no component or resource was wasted, was responsible nationwide for the collection of all e-waste into resource streams OR repair for reuse.
    
    I’m just saying, techpriests might make me reevaluate my views on organized religion.
    
    source
  - douglasg14b@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    The amount of Labor that would go into it it really isn’t that high.
    
    This is what distribution is for.
    
    The company that owns the hardware is not the company that recycles it. The recycler can make a profit by reselling these components, they’re not allowed to.
    
    source