Opinions on How to Payout for Charity Recycle Events...what are you doing?

I was thinking this was covered in a thread I read, but I cannot find it anywhere....at least not a more recent one.

So, people that do recycle events...especially the ones for school or charities....how are you paying them these days? Are you doing a price per pound for different items or a % after the items are sold or something else? I am re-evaluating my payout method and was curious what other people are doing....might as well do some market research! LOL

In the past, I had been offering a % of sales of the items, BUT some of the items (especially the ones that are more than scrap value) are taking a bit of time to sell off. Plus, I would rather just take a couple of days and then just get the charity/school paid. I am leaning towards .XX per pound for different types of items to make it simple.

So, let's here what you guys are doing. Would love to hear some of the pricing schemes....I wanna take some notes where I can make a decision since I have a couple that I want to schedule for October.

Thanks in advance!

I did a charity collection event once.

Ours was for E-Waste. We came up with a pricing scheme that was flat rate (So much for a desktop, so much for laptops,...). This way, I didn't have to deal with someone claiming that their Pentium II Compaq was valuable. I resold a couple of computers and then donated to them (A Church's children's missionary group) a portion of the sales. I didn't contract this part, though. I did it out of goodwill. I've known the pastor for the last 10 years, so we just did a verbal arrangement.

I really liked the flat-rate, though. It was smooth, quick, and easy.

I would love to do something like this...but I'm shuddering at the thought of what I would do with all the CRT TVs and Monitors that I know would show up!

@MattyNoNeck At our event, we charged for them. A portion went back to the church. If a CRT fell into our $5 to accept it class, it was raised to $7.50/unit for the event. The church got $2.50 for it, and we got $5 to process it.

That works to deter most people from even bringing CRTs. People hate to pay to get rid of something. Charging for CRTs cuts our voulme of them to almost nothing.

@matty - I took them on my last 2, but I won't any longer...the new flyer will specifically have no regular TV's (LCD/plasma only)....because I got like 30 of the things...even at my small event. I don't have the space yet for that...if I was just palletizing and shipping out to a processor, then fine (charge $5 like everyone else), but I am limiting this to ewaste from now on. Better ROI and less hassle.

I do them because it is FAR easier to get people to bring it to you...we are there for 3-4 hours and the stuff just magically shows up. Benefits the organization as well...I just make a donation back to them from my company for whatever we had contracted. An NO, they don't get to say this ir that is worth more..that only works in the "I pay you a % when I sell it" deal...but I DO make sure to put aside things I know have value. the last one we had, I got a Commodore 128 in great shape...that went straight into the truck front. Sold it untested for $25 on Ebay.

Ain't a tv electronic waste? ;)

I know what you mean tho. Just had to give ya a poke. Wanted you to feel loved. Ha!

I'm glad i have an out let for glass. You boys are welcome to send them my way. WBSTS..Ga aint' that far from my sandbar! ;)

I plan to do a couple this fall an am going to just offer a percentage of the sales. As you know all to well I don't do eBay, so I'll try an sell local an through other avenues. Give it a week an no results scrapped it is unless something special an I know someone with interests in that area. I will accept TV's an likely tack on a charge for once, since it is helping a charity/church.

I have gone back an forth on both, an hell still may change my mind on the percentage/set fee side of it.

Good luck, as always let us know the results.

Sirscrapalot - I could use a warm beer. - Said nobody ever.

Just scrap the ewaste down and sell the iron stuff and give that $$ to the charity.
Its the easy to get metal that comes out first when you scrapdown the computers.
Its also the metal that takes up most space and once you have done it you have a idea of what you have as ewaste and its worth.

I would be more than happy to take CRTs (and even happier to charge to take them) but I just don't know where/how to deal with them. I don't think Best Buy would be too keen on me showing up with three or four pallets! Is there anywhere you could ship them by the pallet-load that could at least break even on the shipping? I'd be happy with that as long as I could charge to take them on-site.

I pay % of what current shred is @ yard. Crt's excluded, but I do accept them. I have a place to drop CRT glass and abs . Love crt's steady flow of #2 cu.

Yep, Sirscrapalot...they are electronic waste. :)

I just have a more limited space right now, so I have to limit what I take in for the higher $$$ items. The last event I did, I got like 30-35 of the darn things....and really for $5-15 or so, the labor and the disposal (taking to Best Buy) just outweighed the $5-15 worth of copper / brownboards and wire I was getting out of them. I shoot for $40-50/hr in breakdown, so had to rethink those. When I get to a larger space and I can just palletize them, and store until I have a truckload to send to a larger facility that pays .50-1.00 each...I would just snip the cord and send them on...that would make more sense....well $200-300 net per truckload isn't killing it, but would be easy extra $$$. I will take LCD/plasma ones at the event as the parts are worth FAR FAR more than the scrap value and they are lightweight....otherwise, have to pass until the larger building.