do i need a permit?

Hi everyone,
I am new to the forum! So happy to find this place. Tons of stuff to learn. I got to know recycling business a month ago. I have a friend who's doing this business in Asia. He wants to buy a lot of e-waste. He finds me and wants me to buy those stuff and ship them to his company. I have no clue whether it's legal to do so. Do I need a permit or business license? is it legal to buy e-waste as a person and ship them outside the country? I don't want to break the law. Hope someone can help me figure out what I should do. Thank you so much! By the way, I am in CA.

I don't know all the rules but what he wants you to do could be an issue. There are a ton of laws that control the export of items even if they are COTS (Commercial off the shelf) items. I would not even now where to begin to find out how you could do this but know once you start asking they start watching. Lots of rules for export control.

Good luck

Hey Francis, welcome to SMF. I can't really answer your question, but I do know this has been discussed several times in other threads. While you're waiting on some new information, you might can find something about it using the search window using different keywords. Also, as you browse other threads, check at the bottom of each thread in the "similar threads" box. Good luck!

Start with your HOA, then city, then county, then state, then the Feds. By the time you get thru all of that, the UN might want a piece too.

you guys are so nice! thank you for all your answers! I'll search for more threads and read some rules.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Francis8080

you guys are so nice! thank you for all your answers! I'll search for more threads and read some rules.

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I think Noble has put in some input on exporting scrap, might check with him,,,

As a fan of literature I tend to notice patterns in writing style. Is the bait behind the boat here?

who's Noble? how can i find him?　thank you!

...Paging Noblemetalworks to the courtesy phone. We have another for you.

Bring a drink or three, I think your going to need it. I do after reading this thread. :&

Sirscrapalot - They say to not feed the trolls, but I think its fun to. Feed them enough an they explode! - the awesomeness that is me.

Edit : Yes, I stole the courtesy phone line from Auminer. an proud of it. :p

It is illegal to ship "e-waste" out of the country

I might be able to help you with your question, I used to broker 40ft containers of e-waste to China. Although I have changed the way i think in regards to this, and today would not do so even if there were no legal issues involved. I am not proud to admit this, nor proud to admit my ignorance. But if I can help others by posting that information here, then maybe it's worth the time to do so.

As I said above, I used to ship 40ft containers of e-waste to China, as well as a few other Asian countries like Indonesia, India, etc. Each had their own particular requests, for Indonesia for example, they wanted containers of used monitors. What they did was knock off the photon gun in the back, and re-equip it so it could be used in the production of cheap TV sets. I thought that re-purposing our waste to make a usable product was great, what I didn't know at the time is that they were doing so with no accountability and disposing of the parts they did not use in the process, indiscriminately.

So before I get into the legal aspects of shipping e-waste overseas, I want to first talk about the health issues in doing so.

Many people suffer untold health issues because e-waste is being processed in their country, many times illegally. Here are a few examples you can watch and read to bring home my point;

The politics of e-waste: A cadmium lining | The Economist

Burning E-Waste Raises Cancer Risk In China » News » OPB

China: The electronic wastebasket of the world - CNN.com

The Electronic Wasteland - 60 Minutes - CBS News

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCR-LBuvaYM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70ln8dz8VYM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3fOLL10yxY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhN8bEy7f8A

I could post much much more, all you have to do is google or search on youtube to find many such examples. I don't think I could honestly add anything more of value to what I have already posted, so I will leave it at that. You might think that processing of the e-waste are each countries own problems, but it's really our problem, and we are selling our problem to other people for a profit.

The other thing that I never realized until I stepped away for enough time (years) and was able to think of it without benefit of making a profit by doing it, is that we, as Americans, are really selling our resources for pennies on the dollar to other countries. What I mean is that we are selling our precious metals, to other countries, for almost nothing. And in doing so are forced in many situations to purchase those refined metals back from those very same countries, at a premium. If we want to make our own country strong (US) then we need to learn to retain and process our e-waste here, for the benefit of our own people and industry. So long as we are willing to ship somewhere else to make a small profit, we will be essentially cutting our own throat.

By keeping e-waste here in our own country to be processed, we are also creating a need to recycle and process it, which creates new business, new jobs, and new industries. Would you sell a dollar to someone who lives in another country for 20 cents, and then spend 3 dollars to buy that very same item back just in the form of some other consumer good? No, you wouldn't, so why would you sell the gold that is here in the US for less than it's value, only to pay more than it's value in the form of electronics?

Even after all the information on the morality, ethics and health issues some people will still want to ship e-waste to other countries just to make a buck. There are so many other complex issues associated with this, as to make the entire endeavor less and less appealing. When I was shipping 40ft containers of e-waste to other countries, it wasn't illegal anywhere in the world. Matter of fact, it was actually encouraged. It was a way to get rid of e-waste in the US, and other people across the world to make a living processing it. Now however things have drastically changed. Most countries have banned importing e-waste. The laws are so convoluted and changing so rapidly that you could easily find yourself breaking the law before you even realize it. Companies even sell working computer systems as if they are being sold to be used, to be processed in other countries that have banned importing e-scrap, just to get around the laws. It seems that companies in the US are willing to do almost anything to ship off their unwanted-unprocessed e-waste to other countries just to get rid of the headache and to make a fast buck.

If you were, lets say, to ship computers to China to be broken down for e-scrap, you would have to sell them as usable, you would have to get shipping permits and licenses, you would have to comply with the State Department requirements, customs inspection and documents, EPA requirements, Chinese permits to ship into the country, shipping stamps, access to the right shipping facilities, inspection companies, and the list goes on and on, not to mention all the hands that have to be greased to make all this happen in real time.

If you are able to overcome all these obstacles, and still willing to ship e-waste to an Asian country, consider the changing atmosphere in relation to shipping e-waste overseas. In other words, if you are even able to ship e-waste to another country now, I don't think it will be possible in the very near future.

Responsible Electronics Recycling Act Arrives at Congress
Responsible Electronics Recycling Act Arrives at Congress - Waste Management World

I have one last point to make with you, and perhaps a better way of doing business with your Asian friends. Why not process the material here in the US at a refiner?

Lets compare the two ideas so you can see what I am talking about.

You load a 40ft container to ship to China, you incur the cost of all the banking instruments even if your bank is only accepting these documents, letters of credit, processing, etc.

You have to make sure you comply with all the laws and regulations governing not only international trade, but also in shipping e-waste, and make sure you comply here in the US, and in the destination country.

You have to incur the cost of shipping, loading, insurance, inspection, customers, etc etc etc

By the time it gets to a dock in whatever country you are sending it to, it has to be trucked or shipped by whatever means to the location it will be processed at.

The people you are selling to are not going to make over spot on the material, matter of fact it probably will not be processed efficiently at all, and will end up costing more to process than if they did so here, in the US.

So you incur all the costs involved in all those things, which lowers your profit margin dramatically, for the company you are selling the e-scrap to, they are spending far more for the e-scrap to process than what they would if it was processed here in the US.

But if instead, you had them put up the funds, and purchased the same exact lots of material you were previously going to ship to China, and instead had them processed here, you not only would be saving your friend a huge sum of money, but you would also be doing the right thing morally, and not have to worry about any laws. Matter of fact, you could represent the material and make yourself an even better profit margin.

So have your friend put up the money to have the e-waste processed here in the US, you represent the material for another 1%, and you are putting more money in your friend pocket because of all the expenses and fees they will not have to pay, which should more than pay for your salary, plus you would be helping to not only create jobs here in the US, but also helping our economy and keeping precious metals here in the US, instead of shipping them all over the world in the form of e-scrap.

Anyway, that's my two cents, hope what I have said helps.

Scott

You have best chance to share your business plan here and to get quick response from the participants. Its a good place and really acknowledging platform for you.

I have chatted with a man who exported other items (Mostly lumber from Brazil) and he was explaining the entire process to me over around the pool while we sipped some beers. It seemed pretty complicated and almost risky to some extent. I'm sure your friend, if he does a decent amount of importing could send you off in the right direction.

just want to mark this to come back later