we are true recylcers.

[bill]

while many consider the act of recyling to be taking your cans and putting them in a blue box for pick up. i think that us boombox collectors truly are recylers keeping old stereos from the landfill and not buying new ones every two years or so.
its pretty cool to preserve something that was once so valued.
this is a wierd thing to think about really. i mean people spend so much money on things and in the end i am willing to bet 75 percent of all the boomboxes end up sadly being turned into scrap.
in other words thrown in the trash.
who throws stuff like this aways. i mean it is strange to think many people would say we are wierd for wanting things they tossed out and didnt value.
our society is a strange one. it creates desires through media for us to want something then it convinces most people that those things are no longer cool and they are obsolete.
then most toss these things out.
this is a sign to me most people dont think for themselves they are more concerned with the illusion of being cool or fitting in.
i mean its kind of like those rooms some of our grandparents used to have filled with furniture with the plastic covers still on it not used.
so i think we truly embody the spirit of recycling and thats a cool thing in this throw aways world.

 

[Gluecifer]

Amen to that Brother Bill! Right on the money there.

I work in my local community centre where we do a number of recycling initiatives that are a bit left of centre. We collect old pairs of glasses that a local nun then distributes amongst people in need in areas of South America. We take the tabs off the tops of allumnium drink cans that are recycled into prosthetic limbs. We even take old bras that a refurbished and then distributed amongst women in need in Fiji. And to add to that I've started an initiative to take peoples old audio tape collections too!

I discovered that most of the big charity organisations in my area are no longer taking donations of home recorded tapes as it's a breach of copyright and makes them illegal to resell in their shops (this is what they're telling people anyway) and as a result all donated tapes with home recordings are being sent to landfill. So I've taken it upon myself to advertise around my suburb and get the word out so people can recycle them properly through the centre. I use them to record the computer help sessions I run so that the client can 'take home' the lesson as an aid to help reinforce what they learned on the day. I usually get through about 15-20 tapes a week and now that I use community donated tapes, it really gives me a huge buzz.
Heres my flyer: http://img170.imageshack.us/i/tapeflyer1.pdf/
Of course if any extra nice tapes get donated I make sure they find an even more appreciative home in my collection, which is a nice bonus, the people who donate them seem to like this even more ironically.

Recycling is what it's all about.



Rock On.

 

[hemiguy2006]

That is so true Bill.
I often ponder this myself.
What has driven this need to dispose and renew is sheer laziness.
It has been this way for a long time, nowadays on a much larger scale.
For most people it is too much of an effort to maintain or take care of anything.
People would rather just throw stuff out and get new stuff, even at the expense of getting an inferior product.
This also is a great excuse for people to get the newest products available.
God forbid if you are sporting even last years model of anything anymore much less a 30 year old anything.
Alot of it is also attrubuted to media and fads.
People want to "keep up with the times" and the neighbors.
Combine that with any excuse not to fix or maintain= waste waste waste.
Why do you think everything comes in disposable form any more.There is a wipe for just about anything .
Why clean a rag when you can wipe and dispose??
Why clean a mop when you can you can swiffer and dispose???
What I want to know is what happens when we run out of space for the trash, Then what???

 

[MasterBlaster84]

Electronics especially are designed as throw aways so any time we can keep these old devices going absolutely means less in the land fill. I think you guys are right that enjoying, recycled electronics save the environment something even if it's tiny. So many people just have to have the latest products and why, just to show off to their friends and people around them? Do we really need all of this new technology or are we just victims of marketing by the industry? Certainly there are some useful products but much of what comes out isn't necessary, it's just fluff.

 

[ahardb0dy]

 

[bill]

well as crazy as it sounds boombox collecting opened my eyes to something i didnt really pay atenntion to before.
that is the mechanics of the cult of consumerism.
i mean wanting the newest thing because the media tells us its better.
after getting some good older boomboxes i simply found that it was just not true.
its not that i even believed that all new stuff was truly better,it is i suppose to some degree i didnt pay attention to how bad that crappy aiwa multisystem sounded while listening to it.
boomboxes also made me wonder why i didnt have a big old stereo anymore and well
after getting some of those i realised that they do sound better too.
do i think my twenty five year old trinitron has a nicer picture than the plasma screen the wifes brother has.
hmmm thats a bit of tough one. i mean i honestly think it does.
how did this all happen that being sold the same thing over and over again only slightly better beacause the man in the store told us so and so did the commercial.

you see if big companies went back to making things that lasted for twenty five or more years i am thinkng they would soon be out of business.
most people want the cheapest thing possible that will do the job.
music and how most people listen to it has changed so much.
the computer is a multi media entertainment device for sure but that too is dissposable. usually a five year life span in some cases less even.
companies need to make things with a built in factor of dispossability based on the way it looks the way it performs and just the need for many to feel they are fitting in with the crowd.
keeping up with the jones across the street revolves around credit now and it is a huge part of the reason that the economy blew apart in the end.
i mean they say the depression is over on the news the last couple days.
allthough i find that really hard to believe.
its over do to making money liquid so people could get credit to buy some more stuff that will be outdated and tossed aways in no time flat.
so strange.
i have taken pretty much a personal vow to never purchase anything except for underwear sock and food new again
i mean since i have been doing this i have been able to live a much funner life style and even make a few bucks out of doing it.
there is nothing wrong with being behind in technology. especially now i mean having a sound system that sold for a few grand a decade ago is most likely going to sound better than one costing the same price today.
i think the way we throw out so much stuff and dont repair things anymore is really dangerous.
it is creating a new dark age i truly do believe that.
in the far far future i dont think they will be able to figure out how to play a compact disc sometimes.
i mean lets think about it.
it took years to translate the rosetta stone and that was glyphs carved into stone like a written language.
who is going to figure out how to read a compact disc in a hundred thousand years.
so much is dissapearing from modern life.
books on paper that degrades. film stock made of cellulose that breaks down. eventually these boomboxes will even break down.
that being said i do think that in the far future they could be some that will survive at least cosmetically if not function.
so wierd i mean the way data is kept now is a odd thing.
it could all just be wiped out by something as simple as a electro magnetic pulse from the poles shifting.
every thing stored on tape or drives would be gone.
it may sound like science fiction but truly it could happen.
long winded rambling now it is something that has been on my mind lately. how so many things are archived in a way that is not stable.
it is important to keep the past alive. it really is. i mean you can even see young kids today in there teens have no idea how good we had it.
they think that ipods are the pinnacle of sound technology. they think living in a tiny little apartment is freedom and that not having a car is cool.
its a very good thing to keep the past alive so they can see how cool things were. i am sure that some of them may begin to wonder what the hell happened.
some of them might even get even more curious and decide that they want the same things we had.
i think if they went back to how things were before it would be so much better.
i mean in north america there is so much space still i mean lots of it. why in the hell do people need to live in these little urban centers with no space of there own.
shouldnt everyone have a home a car and a huge boombox to kick out the jams with.

 

[ford93]

Bill, sometimes progress is not a good thing. I've always said since the 80's that human population is growing way too fast. I think we should look at that too. Not that people should'nt have kids but keep some kind of law that people are only allowed to bear two kids

American jobs are drastically shrinking while population is growing. Almost all the jobs have been outsourced I know that capitalism is a good thing but it can also backfire on us. Greed has become such a desease for man that it is actually going to destroy man!!

All these secret societies and others should take a step back and see what this is becoming, before it's too late!!

Unless that is their goal for world domination.

I hope I'm wrong on this.

 

[Ghettoboom767]

Bill, sometimes progress is not a good thing. I've always said since the 80's that human population is growing way too fast. I think we should look at that too. Not that people should'nt have kids but keep some kind of law that people are only allowed to bear two kids

American jobs are drastically shrinking while population is growing. Almost all the jobs have been outsourced I know that capitalism is a good thing but it can also backfire on us. Greed has become such a desease for man that it is actually going to destroy man!!

All these secret societies and others should take a step back and see what this is becoming, before it's too late!!

Unless that is their goal for world domination.






I hope I'm wrong on this.

Hi Ford-Your unfortunately so right.
It's the greed that is killing our country.
No one cares about anyone but themselves and how much $ they can squeeze out of the other guy.
It's sad-fees.more fees,and the like-it's a sad thing.
I wish we could start caring again and start buying American products and cars again-your job and welfare may depend on it!
Have a good week-GB.

 

[redbenjoe]

this is such a good thread.
makes us think and learn --
and appreciate our old stuff.

 

[jaredscottfla]

 

[Radio raheem]

The lack of greed should start at home will everyone ask less for there boomboxes? I dont think so.

 

[THAFUZZ]

Bill is right. We ARE recycling 80s cultural icons that are fading from memory. We are doing our little bit in keeping this old flame alive and restoring these magnificent things. I'm now interested "Saving" an older HiFi stereo system from the 70's & 80's because they too were built with lasting quality.

 

[ViennaSound]

We are the yesterday´s heroes!

 

[bill]

it is hard to fathom how we let it get this way. we being the collective population of north america in under five decades we went from making the best to not really making much at all . yes i know there is still cars made here in north america but....... for how long.
the entire deal is just so messed up that you cant even wrap your brain around all the crap now.
i mean the way things are they have most people working so hard they cant even enjoy the stuff they buy nowadays.
the companies dont have to worry about making things last beacause who in the hell has the time to use them.

 

[devol-toni]

i mean the way things are they have most people working so hard they cant even enjoy the stuff they buy nowadays.
the companies dont have to worry about making things last beacause who in the hell has the time to use them.

It's terrible truth.