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Rabbit #186497 05/15/09 04:36 PM
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 745
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My friend just got done building an enclosed sunroom at his house for practically zero cost. His neighbor is a construction superintendent for a major new home builder. A potential home buyer had ordered custom windows instead of the standard ones, so they pulled out the originals and installed the "better ones". The superintendent then held on to the original windows for the next home, or so he thought.

During a monthly management visit to the development, he was told to dispose of the windows, as in dumpster. He resisted and explained that they had only been tacked in place and were in perfect condition. Policy was policy, so he did what he was told to do, which was to place them (gently) into the dumpster for next week's pickup. My friend then went by the site and raided the dumpster three days later and got about $2,000.00 worth of brand-new windows, along with two kitchen cabinets that each had a scratch on one side and two light fixtures that had a simple piece of missing glass.

Two months later, the superintendent got fired for insubordination when he argued about throwing away perfectly-good material that could have easily been reused, sold or even donated.

What is wrong with big companies today?


---Ed---

"But the guy at Home Depot said it would work."
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 247
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Sounds like a lot of stuff getting dumpstered, that could easily be donated to a worthy cause, such as Habitat For Humanity..

techie #186503 05/16/09 12:38 AM
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 404
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The insane amount of petty waste that occurs in governments and corporations is repulsive. Especially in today's world, where everyone is concerned about being "green", and with the money panic, I should think that selling/donating usable surplus equipment and recuperating costs would be encouraged. But, such organizations lack the practicality of smaller ones.

Joined: Jul 2004
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When my wife was building back in the "get it done" days, closing a million bucks a week, they threw away an unbelievable amount of stuff. My kitchen cabinets are all "trash" along with all the block and steel in our addition, cubes of pavers we have used around the house for various things and all the small hardware a person would ever need.


Greg Fretwell
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 787
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Quote
The insane amount of petty waste that occurs in governments and corporations is repulsive. Especially in today's world, where everyone is concerned about being "green", and with the money panic, I should think that selling/donating usable surplus equipment and recuperating costs would be encouraged.


As a life long curb side shopper / dumpster diver, I am apalled at the amount of functional equipment and materials that are tossed. IMHO, the greatest source of waste is the TAX CODE! The company writes down the value of items until they are "worth" $0. At that point, if they donate it to anybody, the value must be worth something greater than $0, therefore the previous depriciation has to be corrected. Too much paperwork, therefore just toss it.
Plus if somebody gets injured while in the dumpster or on the property, the company is liable. Therefore we must ensure all disposed equipment is disabled/destroyed, the dumpsters must be locked up, and the property posted and patrolled.

Larry C

Joined: May 2005
Posts: 167
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Originally Posted by EV607797

Two months later, the superintendent got fired for insubordination when he argued about throwing away perfectly-good material that could have easily been reused, sold or even donated.


It gets better than that. If the company had realized the value of the windows after the super put them in the trash, and decided that the super shouldn't have trashed them, well, that would be "malicious compliance".

Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 64
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Rabbit Offline OP
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Well, I got one! Circa 1947 stage dimming board.
It has nine 4000 watt variacs in it. A couple variacs have been hot and the potting between the windings is gone. This renders them useless because the brushes hang at that point.
I would like to re-pot these. Any suggestions?

Rabbit #195585 08/12/10 09:32 PM
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 1,273
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Norcal...

There have been firings in Northern California over this issue. I forget if it was Oakland or Sacramento, but two fellows were canned for pocketing ALL of the scrap value for years from old electrical equipment.

For your amusement, really old electrical gear is unlikely to use any aluminum. Instead you'll find copper, silver and tin.

Aluminum bussing never took off until its price came down -- a lot. That was a post WWII event.

Government procurement, however, was slow to change. So government purchased electrical anything stayed with copper decades after aluminum took over the commercial field.

The cashed out scrap that the above fellows junked was estimated to be in the millions. ( They sat at the top of the system. Now that the Feds are insisting on 1099s for scrap merchants some boys are in for a shock.)

----

Rabbit:

Talk to a re-winding shop. If they can't do it they'll know who can.


Tesla
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