My rant:
I just sat through a presentation from a local competitor that decided to use his time speaking to spout scare tactics concerning hazardous waste, the EPA, and his lack of knowledge of the electronics recycling industry to justify the fees he charges for recycling electronics to support his overhead bloated company. Instead of informing his audience about our industry, he decided to use his time to bash our “free” model of recycling because we are taking business away from him.
As a customer, why should you pay a fee for a service in that a business is generating revenue from unless that fee is going towards paying bloat because the business is not being run in an efficient manner? Inefficiency comes in different forms: whether it is lack of understanding the industry, paying for gimmicky certifications or corporate status, or just a lack of the fundamental knowledge of how to maximize revenue from the material that needs to be recycled. If a company is charging fees for recycling items that have value on the backend, ask yourself why.
Customers should not have to be chided into using one company over another through the use of scare tactics. All too often we see businesses or individuals use scare tactics on their customers in an effort to drive more business. Unfortunately, there are bad actors in the recycling industry and customers should be concerned about how their material is being handled or how their data is being destroyed, but when an “electronics recycling” company has to resort to misrepresenting what the EPA Superfund rules are and how they are used or tell you the EPA could come after you, be wary.
Finally, when an “electronics recycling” company can not figure out how to find value in the electronics residents and businesses give to them to recycle (like printers and monitors), then you need to ask yourself what kind of “electronics recycling” company they really are. Obviously not a good one, or not really one at all.
Sure there are items that cost to be disposed of properly, but this should be a cost of doing business. Electronics recycling isn’t about cherry picking the items with a high margin or to charge money for lower grade items in order to make more money to support a gimmicky business model. Electronics recycling is a service in which the goal is to do good for the community and the environment. We at Sensible Recycling are fortunate enough to have a profitable business that answers the call of environmental stewardship and providing a valuable service to our community at no charge. This is the point this competitor misses. Not charging forces us to find value in nearly everything that comes through our doors which in turn leads to responsible recycling. Value is not found through gimmicky certifications and corporate status. Value to me means providing a service that does everyone good.
And to the guy that spoke this morning: if your company is having a hard time competing with mine and you have to make insinuations and scare people to make up for the business you lost, maybe you should take a look at your model and trim some of that overhead out. Also, you are in violation of your gimmicky certification for selling your escrap to a local non-certified recycler. Practice what you preach!
