Should I or Shouldn't I Take the E-waste Plunge ??

Hello fellow scrapers as many of you know I have been in all fazes of the Scrap metal Recycling business for many years. I have never really got into the e-waste end of the business for a number of reasons but my youngest son has been pushing me to get into it. I can tell you that in South Florida there really is no legit yard or Recycling center that buys e-waste for more than shred price. That's really what has me concerned, we do every thing in a manor that should be done, we cater to our customers and provide the best service possible to them and would do this with the e-waste customers. What I would like to know from you guys doing this already is are you getting your far market share in your area or are most going to the city or county for there e-waste. My idea is to open the side of the warehouse that is on a busy avenue, we do not use that side of the warehouse that goes thru to the next block. I have all the licenses and permits needed in place, I have all intentions of going thru the process of becoming certified electronics recyclers if I take the plunge. Your advise and thoughts are appreciated. 1956

I would recommend trying it out , you have the capital,space and time it's worth a shot . You could always say hey I tried if it's not to your liking . 1/4 of my customers drop off . The rest I have to go to them . It's not a hassle as I try to plan my day around multiple trips to maximize my gas. Me personally I love it and wouldn't rather be doing anything else. But we are all diffrent so take it with a grain of salt.

I also would love to know how many desk tops you could fit on that flatbed so my answer may or may not be biased.

I would say go for it. Just from my experience, everything from cpu's and servers is recyclable. Except the dust from the fans.

56',

As you know I'm on a sandbar an a bit different from everyone else because of my location. Having said that..

1. Do I get my fair share of the market? Yes, i would say so. There are a few who do the ewaste here but not many. An none full time other then myself that I know of. It's a small sandbar an word travels fast in most social circles including businesses like ours. My other competition is the yards. Like yours unless your willing to travel 45 minutes, pay shred price for ewaste. I ain't *****ing tho, it's more for me. ;) As most can't be troubled to drive any further then they need.

2.(or part of 1..either way) Do i have to travel outside my area? Sometimes. My area is only set by my own limitations. I have a route I work an have developed over the time I've been doing this. Now I prefer not to have to travel to the far north(traffic issues an usually not worth the gas)or go so far south as Hatteras. I will go south more often then I will north. Mainly cause I do have some contacts down that way. This is why I say sometimes. I prefer the 20 - 30 mile radius around the house. Keeps me close to all my clients/customers, the house aka office/shop. This lets me hit all the populated spots, an allows me to cross the bridge to the mainland. I only go about 10 miles inland unless it's a good call. Otherwise I stay on my sandbar. My sandbar is only 120 miles or so from north to south where you need to use a ferry.

3. Do I think you should try it? Yes. Being a member here you've absorbed all the knowledge on ewaste, like the rest of us have with other areas of scrapping. Your also honest as hell as far I know from your time here, we can use more such people in the industry. If there is a need for the service an nobody is filling it or doing it well enough when it can be done better...I'd say go for it.

In short..I think you should do it, an may kick yourself if you don't try it. If your not seeing an increase in the bottom line or like dealing with this side, at lest you can say you tried it. Sounds to me like you got a thought out plan, an don't see a reason you shouldn't.

Anyhow, my .02. Use it as you will. Good luck whatever you decide tho.

Sirscrapalot - When you reach for the stars you may not quite get one, but you won't come up with a handful of mud either. - Leo Burnett

If you generate larger volumes of ewaste then you could always use the shipping (trucking) service to get it to a buyer.

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Originally Posted by Mechanic688

If you generate larger volumes of ewaste then you could always use the shipping (trucking) service to get it to a buyer.

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Well Mechanic688 I at least think that the volumes would be that of Gaylord's for the more high volume items, This is a pretty populated area and the more I think about it with a little advertising and word of mouth that I could do some descent volumes, I am up for a challenge, now I just have to find some trustworthy honest buyers that would work along with us.

I've been in it for a year or two. What i've tried to do is network in such a way that all of the higher value e waste items in the area funnel through me as they become available. At this point it doesn't seem as there's enough volume.

Bear in mind ... this is rural. If you were in an urban area and could process 200 - 300 towers a month at 6.00 $ net per unit it might be worthwhile.

I'm still going to stay with it because it's something fun and interesting. There are all kinds of new things to learn and it's a bit of an adventure. My experience has been that if you follow the things that you feel drawn to they will take you to places that you never could have anticipated. In a good way .... :)

Well the Tri County area, a hour in each direction has six million people, to my knowledge there is no place that purchases e- waste for more than sherd prices. I have in mind to set up a place where any one could bring there e-waste to and get paid a fair market price, our prices would be posted no B S. I am sure there are plenty of IT guys and computer repair places that would bring in there scrap if they were treated fairly, in addition to doing high volume pick ups. Does any of the e-scrapers know of a place like that? In there area.

The nearest buyer in my area is about 45 miles away and is paying .45 USD/lb for " computer green boards". They all get tossed into a gaylord and shipped out in bulk. I asked if it was okay to take a peek inside and there was some nice stuff in there. Some telecom grade boards.

Apparently there's a gent that comes up from Southern Maine that stops by to pick them up every so often. Didn't want to mess up the deal he's got going so was very careful in my speech.

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Time is a big factor. These guys are playing it smart.

It takes about ten minutes to do a basic breakdown of a tower into it's component parts. It takes another 30 - 60 minutes to tear down the components. After expenses you might net six dollars. Do the math and it's less than minimum wage.

Now ... if you just buy and sell boards & components someone else is doing most of the labor. ;)

I think you have the location and client base to do it. If you want you can post a limited time offer type trial period. So post your price and say that you are only buying them for a limited time like a couple of months or weeks, then stop until you finish processing and do the math to determine if it is worth it for you.

Starting realatively slowly would be a good idea in my mind. The local yards are selling to someone now or are themselves processing the materal and shipping. Rather than looking for small amouts this will require "Sales Rep" type to represent your company to businesses(it could be you).

My ewaste profit is largely dependent on myself and my wife working for no wage. I am assuming you are looking for employees to do the work which will require lots of training and supervision to make this work well. Best of luck, Mike

around me the yards pay $0.40# complete towers, shred if anything is removed or not a tower, and $1.00# for MB grade and above ( including memory and CPUs) and $0.15# for under MB grade. The yards sell to another buyer not on the forum that buys ewaste too.

I would pull from shred and just buy boards from the public and have the two grades too.

Eric

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Originally Posted by miked

Starting realatively slowly would be a good idea in my mind. The local yards are selling to someone now or are themselves processing the materal and shipping. Rather than looking for small amouts this will require "Sales Rep" type to represent your company to businesses(it could be you).

My ewaste profit is largely dependent on myself and my wife working for no wage. I am assuming you are looking for employees to do the work which will require lots of training and supervision to make this work well. Best of luck, Mike

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Well Mike the yards that do buy computers around here do not process much e-waste at all, they do not have the time or knowledge and I know this because I am friendly with most of the yard owners and they have offered me there e-waste if I want it, they just take it in to service there customers and not turn them away. To tell you the truth I have seen them in my old yard just put it into there shred, my old partner who has three yards now and sixty five employes is in the mind set that the labor costs involved make it counter productive to separate and brake electronics down, that's one of the reasons I sold out, the expenses in running a yard today are mind blowing. I do have a couple of sales man in the street already so it would be just another service they would sell.

You are a yard right?
Now that i'm retired :)
I would definitely add e waste! increase your bottom line on both e waste and metal.
e-waste is now neighborhood noteworthy because of the internet. You will attract scrappers who get both e waste and metal. You will get a larger market share.

2. your second biggest problem is market awareness on the customer side, but once the word gets around if you got the bucks, in your area millionaire status is possible.

Caution: know what your doing or it will be very easy to end up with a semi load of boards worth 20% or less of actual value. Its all in the sorting. Tear down is much easier (in most cases) then prepping a car for the crusher or appliances. I would plan on one specialists for e waste not your non Ferris guy, (a mistake a lot of yards make)

I second what olddude says on the on the Expert, an also some of what Miked says on employees.

I think your better off handling it yourself if you want to, or having someone you trust to raise up to the expert position an let them do the sorting, breaking down etc. Then again if your talking large volume you may have to have two or three "Ewaste Experts" an let them only work on that.

I know as a one man op who focuses on ewaste, I can do a lot of break downs in a day. Mainly cause..I don't deal with ebay an such. I break down, sell to my buyers an move on. I don't deal with the auction sites. I will deal with CL an other local venues like flea markets but..doesn't sound like you want to go that route. The time I save not dealing with eBay an other sites is used to find more product an break it down an get it out. I also work nutty hours due to my odd sleeping schedule.

To the eBayers..I'm glad it works for you. I chose not to go that way an I'm quite happy with how I do. To each their own an all that. eBay is great if you got the time an patience to deal with it. I don't. ;)

Turn an burn baby. Turn an burn.

My other .02.

As always good luck with it, an let us know how it goes!

Sirscrapalot - Well it's true! It's true! You're semi-evil. You're quasi-evil. You're the margarine of evil. You're the Diet Coke of evil. Just one calorie, not evil enough. - Dr. Evil

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Originally Posted by olddude

You are a yard right?
Now that i'm retired :)
I would definitely add e waste! increase your bottom line on both e waste and metal.
e-waste is now neighborhood noteworthy because of the internet. You will attract scrappers who get both e waste and metal. You will get a larger market share.

2. your second biggest problem is market awareness on the customer side, but once the word gets around if you got the bucks, in your area millionaire status is possible.

Caution: know what your doing or it will be very easy to end up with a semi load of boards worth 20% or less of actual value. Its all in the sorting. Tear down is much easier (in most cases) then prepping a car for the crusher of appliances. I would plan on one specialists for e waste not your non Ferris guy, (a mistake a lot of yards make)

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Well Old Dude I am not a yard any more, i sold out a few years ago I have a few large customers that we service that produce a nice amount of material. My building is a nice size that we work out of, although I have all the required permits and licenses in place to buy material I have chose not to buy material off the street as yet. My youngest son wants to go in the e- waste business so that's what this is, I agree that a computer literate person will manage this end of the business because of our lack of expertise in e- waste. The business model I have in mind will be a recycling center that specializes in electronics, we will post our prices up for all to see and hopefully get some good volumes simply because there is no place to sell e-waste around here that pays more than shred, what are your thoughts? I myself are semi retired.

Go for it
There is a lot to learn
You have access to a lot of information here, and the SMF buyers can help as well
You already have a lot of the infrastructure in place.
Make sure to register with the DEC or whatever authorities rule where you are
Keep good records
Go forth & prosper!

1956, I do know that our local yard is now buying all electronic's except for CRT's cheap (Real cheap) and has one or two guys dedicated to breaking down the more profitable stuff and shipping a semi load to Indy to a big buyer?? I believe the two breaking down are getting paid percentage, but how that's broke down I don't know.
The non profitable stuff is just sent out with cords cut and their buyer buys it whole. (can't pay much)

As much as anything experience is the best teacher. Before deciding to get into e-waste why not do some processing and ship out a few boxes to one of the buyers here ?

Most of the local scrappers in my area have their heads wrapped around steel, aluminum, copper & brass because that's what they have always done. You know how it is ..... monkey see / monkey do. Someone comes in and starts scrapping electronics then they take an interest. They want to do it too.

To Them: E-waste is something complicated and really weird. I can tell by looking at their leavings that they're still thinking in terms of aluminum & copper. If they see something familiar like a wire or an aluminum heat sink they grab it and toss the rest. They like hard drives because it's a chunk of higher grade aluminum.

They're completely overlooking the gold bearing items that are right there in plain view.

Towers are about the easiest thing to do. I tore one down in front of a couple of the local guys so that if they did want to get into it they could. Again ... they could care less about the processor & the ram. They seemed more interested in the power supply because that's where the copper transformers & ferrites are.

That's what's gonna help em' most so i explained where to look for the power boards that are found in most electronics/

For whatever it's worth the basic breakdown of a tower isn't that hard to do. You could almost set it up like an assembly line and have separate bins for each of the components. It could go like this:

Bin #1: Plastics
Bin #2: Steel
Bin #3: Power supplies
Bin #4: Floppy disc drives
Bin #5: CD / DVD drives
Bin #6: Finger cards
Bin #7: Hard drives
Bin #8: Computer wire

What's left after that is the motherboard. You have to break that down a little bit but it's not hard.

Bin # 9a: processor cooling fans
Bin #9b: Aluminum heat sinks
Bin #9c: Processors
Bin # 9d: Memory chips
Bin # 9e: The little coin cell batteries like you find in a watch

That's pretty much all there is. It's not hard to do a basic teardown like this in under ten minutes. From there you're pretty much ready to start selling stuff to your buyers.

If you've got guys on the clock and it's a slow day you could have them do this instead of idling. You could train just about anybody to do it.

That would be one way of getting your feet wet without getting a lot invested in it. If it pans out, and you like doing it,you could gradually start branching out into other e-waste items.

By me more yards are starting to purchase ewaste. Low prices but at least I have a place to sell low and mid grade boards. I feel that the yards need to start looking at buying ewaste as they are getting so much of it anyway in the shred.

also scrap yards here are advertising Electronics, all circuit boards, all computers / parts, non working tablets, laptops. Cell phones and home electronics

Better yet do what these guys are doing... Suburban Miners - Tucson computer and electronic eWaste recycling centers.

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Towers are about the easiest thing to do. I tore one down in front of a couple of the local guys so that if they did want to get into it they could. Again ... they could care less about the processor & the ram. They seemed more interested in the power supply because that's where the copper transformers & ferrites are.

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Nothing like educating your direct competition, you worked for your education on ewaste and your spoon feeding it to them.

Just my opinion, Sorry

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Originally Posted by Mechanic688

1956, I do know that our local yard is now buying all electronic's except for CRT's cheap (Real cheap) and has one or two guys dedicated to breaking down the more profitable stuff and shipping a semi load to Indy to a big buyer?? I believe the two breaking down are getting paid percentage, but how that's broke down I don't know.
The non profitable stuff is just sent out with cords cut and their buyer buys it whole. (can't pay much)

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Mechanic688 years ago my torch guys got paid piece meal meaning I paid them by the amount of steel they cut buy the ton,it's another thing to think about thanks.

But Hobo..what are they paying is the big question? You say you sell them mid-grade boards. So is their pricing better or even with our buyers here? An that other site you linked..they don't even pay! Just want donations from what i saw.

I pay for my stuff a lot of the time, it keeps people coming to me instead of the.."We'll pick it up for free, but not pay you for it" type of guys. If that works in someones area great, but it wouldn't work in mine. People like getting paid for their ewaste, it may not be much but it's better then tossing it in the trash. ;)

It why I can honestly say..I don't have many to compete with. Nobody wants to spend money to make money. Thats ok with me tho..means more business for me. :)

Sirscrapalot - Another day another dollar.

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Originally Posted by Sirscrapalot

But Hobo..what are they paying is the big question? You say you sell them mid-grade boards. So is their pricing better or even with our buyers here? An that other site you linked..they don't even pay! Just want donations from what i saw.

I pay for my stuff a lot of the time, it keeps people coming to me instead of the.."We'll pick it up for free, but not pay you for it" type of guys. If that works in someones area great, but it wouldn't work in mine. People like getting paid for their ewaste, it may not be much but it's better then tossing it in the trash. ;)

It why I can honestly say..I don't have many to compete with. Nobody wants to spend money to make money. Thats ok with me tho..means more business for me. :)

Sirscrapalot - Another day another dollar.

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Yes the place that is drop off only would be the business to be in the other places are $.15 - $1.00

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Originally Posted by Mechanic688

Nothing like educating your direct competition, you worked for your education on ewaste and your spoon feeding it to them.

Just my opinion, Sorry

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It's completely kool. I can see why you would say that.

There's a method to the stupidity:

1: Around here it's considered selfish to withhold your knowledge from another who might benefit from it. We're all out for ourselves but we all share as well.

2: I'm trying to position myself as a buyer with integrity. That means transparency ! When i say to the guys that your best deal is in selling whole towers to me for five dollars i am sincere. They need to have the opportunity to go find out for themselves that what i'm telling them is true.

3: I've got a two year jump on them. If they want to compete i'm betting that i can beat them on a level playing field. Competition is a good thing. It drives you to do better.

4: All of that knowledge that i laid out for them won't help them much. There's just no getting around it ... you have to do the work to earn the benefit.

5: ( Gentle laughter ) ....This e-scrap ......It's too much like work ! It's really no different than any other kind of scrapping.

1956 has the right idea. Buy and sell.

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Originally Posted by Scrappah

As much as anything experience is the best teacher. Before deciding to get into e-waste why not do some processing and ship out a few boxes to one of the buyers here ?

Most of the local scrappers in my area have their heads wrapped around steel, aluminum, copper & brass because that's what they have always done. You know how it is ..... monkey see / monkey do. Someone comes in and starts scrapping electronics then they take an interest. They want to do it too.

To Them: E-waste is something complicated and really weird. I can tell by looking at their leavings that they're still thinking in terms of aluminum & copper. If they see something familiar like a wire or an aluminum heat sink they grab it and toss the rest. They like hard drives because it's a chunk of higher grade aluminum.

They're completely overlooking the gold bearing items that are right there in plain view.

Towers are about the easiest thing to do. I tore one down in front of a couple of the local guys so that if they did want to get into it they could. Again ... they could care less about the processor & the ram. They seemed more interested in the power supply because that's where the copper transformers & ferrites are.

That's what's gonna help em' most so i explained where to look for the power boards that are found in most electronics/

For whatever it's worth the basic breakdown of a tower isn't that hard to do. You could almost set it up like an assembly line and have separate bins for each of the components. It could go like this:

Bin #1: Plastics
Bin #2: Steel
Bin #3: Power supplies
Bin #4: Floppy disc drives
Bin #5: CD / DVD drives
Bin #6: Finger cards
Bin #7: Hard drives
Bin #8: Computer wire

What's left after that is the motherboard. You have to break that down a little bit but it's not hard.

Bin # 9a: processor cooling fans
Bin #9b: Aluminum heat sinks
Bin #9c: Processors
Bin # 9d: Memory chips
Bin # 9e: The little coin cell batteries like you find in a watch

That's pretty much all there is. It's not hard to do a basic teardown like this in under ten minutes. From there you're pretty much ready to start selling stuff to your buyers.

If you've got guys on the clock and it's a slow day you could have them do this instead of idling. You could train just about anybody to do it.

That would be one way of getting your feet wet without getting a lot invested in it. If it pans out, and you like doing it,you could gradually start branching out into other e-waste items.

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Thank you Scrappah for all your information, I do have some experience in e-waste but I am no expert, it's like any thing the more you do it the better you get at it. I my self have no plans to be braking down towers on a daily basis, my time will be developing business contacts and finding good outs for merchandise.My area is wide open, the scrap yards by no means promote e-waste recycling I plan on filling that void.

There is no need to scrap a processor worth $50..........That's why you will need someone that has some knowledge of computers

Ebay or amazon you'll probably get more. Just an idea I just thought of but send a letter to a gun company and ask if they want any metals for shells,bullets,gun parts, and etc...

I'm in a unique spot. I'm the only E-Wate processor within 100 miles. 100 miles away, there are four, so...

We're isolated. I do very well- at least in my mind. The dissassembly is easy, and since I fix/sell computers as my "other" job, E-Waste is a great source for parts and even systems sometimes!

I do travel a lot for pickups, but in Fort Lauderdale, I'd assume you wouldn't have days where you drive 300-400 miles.

To me, it sounds like you have all you need to try. Why not? Unless you take CRTs, you have nothing to lose ;)

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Originally Posted by matador

I'm in a unique spot. I'm the only E-Wate processor within 100 miles. 100 miles away, there are four, so...

We're isolated. I do very well- at least in my mind. The dissassembly is easy, and since I fix/sell computers as my "other" job, E-Waste is a great source for parts and even systems sometimes!

I do travel a lot for pickups, but in Fort Lauderdale, I'd assume you wouldn't have days where you drive 300-400 miles.

To me, it sounds like you have all you need to try. Why not? Unless you take CRTs, you have nothing to lose ;)

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Well I have decided to take the plunge, we will be setting it up over the Labor Day weekend, I ordered a few signs, some flags, got a dozen or so Gaylord's for sorting, one of the members uses Electronic Salvage and I am going with that rather than computer recycling, I just bought myself another job and I am semi retired. I will keep you guys up dated, thanks for all your ideas and suggestions.

If it doesn't make your accounting too complex, it would be interesting to differentiate your E-Waste transactions vs your other scrapping. You can look back in 6 months or a year and find out if this was a good choice or not.

Also, does your son work with you? Since he bugging you to get into this, I would give him some responsibility over this. It would be good to have your E-Scrap person/people be family, or at least someone you trust. E-Waste is pretty lucrative due to the lack of competition, so you need to make sure the people you teach aren't going to become your competition.

One more big point - make sure you spend some time talking to PartTimeScrapper, and have an eye for what you can send to him for much more than scrap. I regularly get items worth 2-10 times scrap value that I send to him. It can be the difference between a tower being worth $7 in scrap vs $50 in reusable parts. You don't need a lot of computer knowledge or deal with Ebay when you work with him.

Good luck!

[QUOTE=foobar;213767]If it doesn't make your accounting too complex, it would be interesting to differentiate your E-Waste transactions vs your other scrapping. You can look back in 6 months or a year and find out if this was a good choice or not.

Also, does your son work with you? Since he bugging you to get into this, I would give him some responsibility over this. It would be good to have your E-Scrap person/people be family, or at least someone you trust. E-Waste is pretty lucrative due to the lack of competition, so you need to make sure the people you teach aren't going to become your competition.

One more big point - make sure you spend some time talking to PartTimeScrapper, and have an eye for what you can send to him for much more than scrap. I regularly get items worth 2-10 times scrap value that I send to him. It can be the difference between a tower being worth $7 in scrap vs $50 in reusable parts. You don't need a lot of computer knowledge or deal with Ebay when you work with him.

Good luck![/QUOTE

Thank you foobar for your input, well this will be run like a separate business as I do with my cardboard and used appliances I am a true believer in a a high tide covers what's under neath, the less confusion the better, my son is in his late twenty's and yes he works with me, I have only dab baled a little with e-scrap simply because of lack of knowledge he feels as I do that e-scrap is the future and we should be in it so this will be his baby, as far as employes go that has always been a problem we have right now 12 full time employes and a few part timers, there is no way to stop people that work for you to open there on business that's the American dream
That does not mean that because they work for me that they have to no more than than the task at hand requires. I learned a long time ago that your business is as good as your employes I can't drive six trucks at a time and don't want to.

Good luck
Different material, same service.That track record is proven, you will do fine when your margins get figured out. Kids got some studying to do better get on it.

Glad to see you rolling the dice on it 56'.

Good luck, will be interesting hearing your take on things in a couple months when you give us a good update. ;)

Sirscrapalot - Why Does Pluto Live in a dog house, eat dog food, etc. but Goofy, who is also a dog, lives in a condo and drives a car? And, why is Mickey Mouse bigger than his dog Pluto? - Stolen from a random thought site.

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Originally Posted by Sirscrapalot

Glad to see you rolling the dice on it 56'.

Good luck, will be interesting hearing your take on things in a couple months when you give us a good update. ;)

Sirscrapalot - Why Does Pluto Live in a dog house, eat dog food, etc. but Goofy, who is also a dog, lives in a condo and drives a car? And, why is Mickey Mouse bigger than his dog Pluto? - Stolen from a random thought site.

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Why was Mickey Mouse mad at Minnie? She was f in Goofey!

Just wanted to give you guys a update, we are processing a decent amount of material, i would say 5-6 hundred pc a week,
i have done some a-word advertising and it really get the phone ringing of course you have to be able to weed through the
good calls and the bad calls, i already see that dealing with Mrs Smith that thinks her old system is worth a hundred
is not the direction to go into so we just weed them out, but i have gotten some good quality clients already, and the state
has connected us, the company doing them charges them can we take it with out a charge? what do you think i said.
i have not sold any thing yet except the tin and some odds and ends locally.Thanks 1956