Recycling old cabling?

[jeffrey.lyon at blacklotus.net (Jeffrey Lyon)]

I know of a guy that was terminated for "stealing" CAT5 that he was
instructed to throw in the dumpster.

Jeff

On Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 9:38 AM, Frank A. Coluccio <frank at fttx.org> wrote:
> ? All of the larger telcos and power utilities have been 're-smelting'
> ? copper for decades. Verizon (nee NY Telephone) had a copper smelting
> ? plant on Staten Island at one time that recycled all of the used
> ? cross-connect wire and cables removed from underground and poles. Telco
> ? main distribution frame personnel were, and very likely still are,
> ? instructed to use "copper-scrap" bags for depositing small bits and
> ? pieces of copper wiring collected at cleanup time at the end of work
> ? shifts. Many years ago, copper, for this reason, was one of the three
> ? "C"'s that no one would mess with. Copper and Cash were two.I'll leave
> ? the third one to the reader's imagination.
> ? This subject is interesting because it's one of the cost-justifiers in
> ? business models that seek to re-engineer large office buildings and
> ? other copper-intensive venues where the objective is to replace all
> ? copper wiring with hybrid fiber-wireless alternatives. While
> ? reclamation through salvage is only a by-product of this movement, it
> ? is nonetheless one that is cash intensive, so it cannot be overlooked.
> ? Not only is the copper data cabling removed (Cat3/5e/6, in this case),
> ? but also potentially tons of power cables and racks supporting
> ? sometimes hundreds of riser telecom/LAN closets, where there are
> ? usually anywhere from two to four closets per floor, depending on the
> ? size of the floor plate, in a forty- or sixty-story building, say.
> ? Every copper penny helps these days.
> ? --- streiner at cluebyfour.org wrote:
> ? From: "Justin M. Streiner" <streiner at cluebyfour.org>
> ? To: nanog at nanog.org
> ? Subject: Recycling old cabling?
> ? Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2010 07:29:50 -0400 (EDT)
> ? Just out of curiosity, is anyone here recycling old cabling and plant
> ? infrastructure for their raw materials, or engaging a recycler to
> ? handle
> ? those materials? ?Where I work, there is almost always a renovation
> ? project going on. ?This provides opportunities to rip out
> ? Cat3/Cat5/long-abandoned thicknet/thinnet/FDDI-grade fiber/etc, which
> ? we
> ? normally do. ?Most of the time that old cabling ends up in the
> ? dumpster,
> ? but I'm wondering if anyone is recycling it, either by their choice, or
> ? as
> ? the result of company policy or relevant laws in your area?
> ? Cat3/Cat5 can be broken down to raw materials with some effort, but I
> ? haven't seen many recyclers with an economically viable process for
> ? doing
> ? it. ?Coax is a bit tougher, but not impossible (same questions about
> ? economic viability still apply). ?Fiber can be tough, expecially if
> ? you're
> ? dealing with something like 20+ year old gel-buffered cable where the
> ? has
> ? long-since dried out.
> ? I'd be interested to hear other peoples' experiences along these lines.
> ? jms
>



-- 
Jeffrey Lyon, Leadership Team
jeffrey.lyon at blacklotus.net | http://www.blacklotus.net
Black Lotus Communications of The IRC Company, Inc.

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