Misleading Customers

Electronics recycling is still somewhat of a new industry in some areas.  Many people I speak to are still unfamiliar with recycling their old electronics.  Because of this, some recycling businesses take advantage of their customers’ lack of knowledge and mislead them.  This is unfortunate because this reflects poorly on all of us that run electronics recycling businesses.

There exist a few certifications that are available to the electronics recycling industry.  These certifications are meant to help control our practices and ensure we are handling the material in an appropriate manner.  Some large businesses require the companies they use to have these certifications.  They are costly, and in my opinion, really have no teeth to them.  Nevertheless, they are good for some companies.

What is not good are companies that misrepresent themselves by saying they have these certifications, when they don’t.  The use of the logo is prohibited and to say you are in process of getting a certification, that is prohibited also.  We have another local company in town that is falsely using the R2 logo in order to mislead their customers and misrepresent their business.  On all accounts, this is wrong.  Companies like this leave a bad reputation for all of us that run an electronics recycling business.

If you are looking into having your electronics recycled and these certifications mean something to you, do your research.  Make sure the company is really who they say they are.  If you find a company that is lying to their customers about their certifications, you can bet they are lying to you when it comes to your data and how they handle the electronics.