Growing my E-Waste Business

Hi All-

I'm looking to expand! I take in E-Waste (Mostly desktop and laptop computers) and refurbish them for resale. CRT's don't interest me, but I get a bunch of them. I started small, with a deal with a local school. Since then, I've added another school (I went there and just "ran into" the tech guy there- I know him pretty well) and a municipality (About 600 people live in the town, so only about 5 computers every two years come from that contract).

I live in the wild west, so things are spread apart. To our North, there are three E-waste places. One charges $.30/lb for anything, and deals with Gov't accounts, schools, hospitals,... Another has a sign on the Interstate that says "Free Electronics Recycling". They get a lot of stuff in, but it's all junk. Heck, even I've taken CRT's there! They offer bins, and I've been told multiple times by them that I could pull stuff out. The good stuff gets pulled out. The other is a place that recycles everything, and has been around forever. I don't really want to target this market (though it's fairly close to us, and the biggest place in the area).

To the south, there is nothing that I'm aware of. There was a place in the opposite corner of the state, but the DEQ got after them for landfill dumping. I think I've got an opportunity here. I own a 14' Ford box van, two half-ton pickups, and a 16' flatbed trailer. I have plenty of storage space, and there are no zoning laws in our county. We also live on the highway, so advertising could be done later on.

Now, my question- what do you think I should do? I've pondered going after businesses and schools, and I've also pondered the route of doing community collection events. Those are starting to pop up in the area in a couple of towns. My biggest fear is spending money to do the drives, and getting no return. Is this a rational fear?

There is one town of about 10k people that I would like to target if feasible. They have a recycling center that charges, so I think a free drive may work. They are the type of people that lease luxury cars and have the newest stuff.

What do you think I should do, and more importantly, how???

Thanks for any help!

Shoot for the free drive, an you may get more then you bargained for. As in..not that just one area. ;)

Also, you can thank NHScrapman for this one, maybe adopt a stretch of roadway there on the highway. Sign get's put up with your business name, so free advertisement when the time comes for them to exit, an gets your name out there your helping the enviroment and community. Just make sure you follow up on picking up the trash. Which could also add more to your bottom line, if you don't mind dealing with some metal/cans along with your ewaste.

You can find his thread here if you want to read more on the adopt thing.

http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/scrap...y-program.html

Either way good luck, an I'm sure you'll get a bunch more replies.

Sirscrapalot - I do not judge, I only chronicle. - John Singer Sargent

I think you should read a bunch of old threads, a lot of your questions have been covered in great detail. If you'll look at the bottom of the page you'll see similar threads, that may be a good place to start. You might not appreciate that answer very much, but good luck anyway ; )

Welcome to the forum. Like any business you should take your time and ensure your are completely aware of any regs you may need to operate under. Find what works on a small scale and do more of it.

Expansion can include other types of scrap that you may want to target. Read more, like Bear said, its like having thousands of mentors telling you about stuff you might not have considered yet.

Personally I don't have a lot of space and am restricted to how much I can pick up so ewaste really is good for me. If I were healthier with more space I might pursue other types of scrap as well as the ewaste. Best of luck and read the sticky threads and the buyers threads. Mike

See told you wiser folks then myself would have suggestions for ya!


Sirscrapalot - Likes it when he's right. ;)

One thing that I should mention and somehow forgot to put in the first post:

I own and operate a computer sales and service store, so instead of looking for scrap, I look for usable systems that I can refurbish and resell. I accept anything, but a Pentium 4 or older gets scrapped out. I'd love to turn the old machines into money and have read some threads on doing it, but it's not my main thing. I basically do E-Waste to get inventory to refurbish.

I kind of like the Adopt-A-Highway idea, but it would need to be a little ways off for us to do. But, then again, 50 miles away is like our front porch out here!

Sirscrapalot- I'm always looking for wiser folks! My crystal ball is in the shop, and has been for a very long time! If you have any tips on doing a drive or what to expect, that would be great!

And, of course, pointing me to other threads is fine.

Thanks for the help!

If you do a search on the subject Matador you will find at lest 2 or 3 recent threads on the subject of drives. Good info there.

I'd link for ya but I leave that to Mech an the others, as I'm not much for linking threads. ;)

I lack a crystal ball to, one I had I scrapped. ;)

An yes I got more then scrap value for it!

Sirscrapalot - Off to add some contents to the cooler.