4 E-Waste Categories (Taiwanese Geeks Are Awesome)

Another Hypothesis:  There were basically Four Types of USA Computer Monitor / Electronics Recycling in the decade past:

1. Honest companies with under 5% reuse.  They don't do the homework on the testing and reuse market, they shred everything ("good idiots")
2. Companies that ship for refurb off-site, like mine, which achieve 25% reuse and are proud of it.  (honest and good)
3. Companies that ship for refurb off-site, like mine, which achieve 25% reuse, and claim testing and everything is done in the USA ("good liars")
4. Companies that ship enough good stuff that the export market forgives the crap, allowing them to ship 65% overseas... (bad exporters)

Inventor of Chinese character display from CRT

California was an example of Good Idiots.  There was little incentive to export good monitors to good companies when California taxpayers were shellling out 48 cents per pound to break them into pieces to put on the ground. 

There were companies I know of that were maximizing "TAR" or Toxics Along for the Ride.  They were willing to earn less for the good monitors in return for forcing along TVs and bad monitors.   I knew about them from the Taiwanese buyers.  Some of the worst exporters were - get this - Pledge of True Stewardship Signers!

The majority of e-waste recyclers in the past decade - About 50% of companies - were doing what I was doing (#2 and #3)...  The number who were transparent and proud began shrinking under BAN's scorched earth campaign vs. reuse.  And the buyers, who I visited and met with, were teaching me just about everything I know about display reuse and recycling.  I go to Africa as the "American expert" and talk about things I learned in China.

The Taiwanese were the earliest investors in Guangdong.  They have been enormously helpful in Mexico, South America, and Africa.  I keep running into Taipei Geeks all over the world, and they deserve a huge shout out.  Anyone who says "manufacturer takeback" and describes Taiwan as Guiyu is a certified laughingstock.

Employer Diligence Lesson: Users are Liars

Short important lesson on starting your own recycling company.

We have 36 employees.  We started with one truck driver / CEO / Accountant (me).  At the beginning, 0% of our workforce was on drugs. Then, along the way, we rode through a period when the Vermont unemployment rate was below 4%, and we were still growing and not a high-paying company.

A certain number of unemployed people are toxic.  Sorry, that's not heartless.  It's just a given. Drug users tend to get fired and come looking for work elsewhere.  If you are soft and "close one eye", they will wind up destroying your company and taking the other eight or ten jobs with them.

We are now at the point where we have "grown ups" in every department, people who don't have a monkey on their backs and who care about riff-raff getting into the place.  Recycling and scrap businesses are still seen as a low barrier to entry, and we have to be wary.

But it all boils down to this:  Not all liars are users, but virtually all users are liars.  The more you become good at lying, the more pathological you become at it.  I tried to stay friends with the drug crowd who were my friends after high school.  But the temperature of the lying was rising.