It has been my goal to start an e-waste recycling company for the last 2 years of my life. I have been managing a fairly large private sanitation company in NYC for the last 3 years. Having seen an incredible decrease in paper collection over the last 5 years, I knew e-waste was what I needed to start thinking about.
I have access to a decent amount of electronics through my customer base. I even had the added bonus of charging them for the removal of their material. Not being able to legally break down e-waste as a company I got my universal waste handlers permit and started collecting and storing and selling e-scrap in large quantities. Currently, I have about 60 gaylords of assorted electronics. Roughly 20 tons or so...
Well... a calculated decision was made to sell the garbage company.. Part of the deal I made for myself was to take control over all e-waste collection for the next 3 years of both companies.. This has given me access to a customer base 6 times the base I had originally. Having worked for a company all of my life it is a completely new step to now work for myself. As you might imagine, I am very excited and anxious...
I just got a building and will begin full operations in the next few weeks. I have found this forum to be extremely helpful and informative and hope to continue learning and sharing what I learn as I move forward.
This is a rather large step and I know there are others here who have made similar moves. I was hoping some of you would share your experiences in starting a medium to large scale operation and some of the pitfalls you encountered that I should be aware of and possibly avoid.
Thank you for reading! I look forward to reading all of your stories moving forward, possibly doing business with some of you and growing this industry together.
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