Economy: When recycling saves you money

In addition to helping preserve the environment, recycling some waste can be a way to make ends meet. This is what Lisa intends to do, a young woman in the midst of a movement followed by 20H news. “I have an old computer, it’s been at least five years since I used it”as you say. At the bottom of the drawers are also old phones, a few chargers and a music player from another time. “We usually accumulate things and forget”, She adds.

And for Lisa, there was no doubt about getting rid of her. She registered on a specialized site, offering to buy it back and then recycle it. “I think the smartphone, I no longer have it for 50 euros, now I’ve seen the models being made. And the computer, maybe 500 euros, but I’m not sure”Girl counts.

Recycling their products for a few euros promised dozens of specialized Internet companies, such as the company Zack in Val-de-Marne. Created in 2016 by two fierce circular economy activists, it accepts most things electronic.

But are they all really valuable? For phones, consoles, and computers, the good news is that if they still work, the company refurbishes them, so you can make money. For example, a computer can bring in a hundred dollars. “I currently have a sign that there is a problem with the keyboard, so we will do a more detailed diagnosis, then we will fix it and it will be sold”, Co-founder Timothée Mével explains.

For other devices it’s hard to hope for much, maybe a few cents, but it still matters to the manager. It is bombed here to recover the ingredients. “In the printer, we have 40 grams of aluminum, and 50 grams of copper, and these are raw materials that will be disassembled, recovered and reused.”, He says.

If your printer isn’t producing much, the ink cartridges inside are more valuable. It is bought by Cartouche-vide.fr, located in Vence, and it can be worth up to 7 euros per unit depending on the model, especially if it is not completely empty. “Ink is worth 5000 euros per liter, so it is three times more expensive than good champagne and there are precious materials on the printed circuit, aluminum, copper and a little gold,” Details of Loïc Petitpas, his deputy. They just need to be functional. “We check that the print head is in good condition, there are no scratches or bumps”, continued. Then it is packaged again and sold. For customers, it’s a way to earn a few dollars easily. Today, 3/4 cartridges are simply thrown into the trash.