I’m not proud. When many of us were kids, we were unabashedly excited when trash day came around because sometimes you’d find an old radio or — jackpot — an old TV out by the curb. Then, depending on its size, you rescued it, or you had your friends help, or, in extreme cases, you had to ask your dad. In those days, people were frugal, so the chances of what you found being fixable were slim to none. If it was worth fixing, the people would have probably fixed it.

While TVs and radios were the favorites, you might have found other old stuff, but in those days, no one was throwing out a computer (at least not in a neighborhood), and white goods like refrigerators and washing machines had very little electronics. Maybe a mechanical timer or a relay, but that’s about it.

Didn’t matter. Even a refrigerator had a power cord. Just about anything was fair game for collection in a budding junk box for a future, unspecified project. But today, unrepairable trash is likely to stay on the curb until it heads for the landfill.

Why?

This shouldn’t be a surprise. Even though people are more likely to throw away nearly good stuff these days, a lot has changed. Consumer electronics have tiny SMD components, and a lot of the cool stuff will be custom and inscrutable to an electronics hobbyist.

But some of it is just supply and demand. In 1970, if you needed, say, a relay, and you didn’t live in a major city, you’d have to find what you wanted in a catalog. Then you’d place an order with a written check or a money order. Don’t forget, in those days, there was probably a steep minimum order, too. So one $3 relay wasn’t going to cost $3. It would probably have to be part of a minimum order and cost more in shipping. While a $100 minimum sounds big, in the 1970s, for most of us, it might as well have been $100,000.

Then the check had to clear, and two or three weeks later, the postman might bring your relay. After a month or more, you might not even remember why you wanted it. Today, you click a few buttons, and sometimes the next day the component mysteriously appears on your doorstep.

How About You?

Do you still strip old components? I’ll admit, it has only been a few years since I stopped habitually cutting power cords off anything heading for the trash. I finally threw out or donated old computer cases, small monitors, and the like.

Computers becoming junk made things a little more complicated. Before 3D printers, getting your hands on things like stepper motors, bearings, and belts was a little challenging. But now, these are a click away like everything else.

If I do strip any components today, it might be strange things that are hard to find now: air variable capacitors, inductors, and maybe floppy drives. Unless, of course, the gear is super old, but in general, things that are real antiques tend not to show up in the trash heap.

On the other hand, people are more likely to throw away perfectly good gear these days. Well, perfectly good if you have even moderate repair skills. We’ve picked up laser printers, TVs, and a very nice pro audio mixing board just by paying attention to the dumpster in the parking lot. As I said, I’m not proud.

Your Turn

Do you collect junk parts? Why? Why not? Do you think kids should even bother now? Do they? What’s your dream dumpster find? We sometimes get jealous of people who, apparently, have better dumpsters than we do.

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