Been scraping on my own for awhile looking ramp up into a full recycling company

**conrad4784** · 03-06-2013, 09:36 AM

Hello I have a IT business currently in flordia were I first started e recycling of our own e waste then I moved into buying broken desktops and laptops at a flat rate per machine to scrap. I am looking to ramp up into a full e waste recycler. Im assuming the big boys in recycling ewaste ship there tractor trailer loads to refiners where they get the best profit vs reselling am I correct in this assumption? If so does anyone have a good contact for a refiner that wont cheat me. Ive had that happen before. Also any other suggestions for a start up ewaste recycler would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

**Decycle** · 03-06-2013, 11:37 AM

What things are you going to scrape? And what will you use? A knife?

**conrad4784** · 03-06-2013, 12:07 PM

A knife lol we focus mainly on it equipment desktops laptops routers servers. Etc.. i have been paying my employee to dismantle and sort the servers and desktops with drills but with higher volume this approach doesnt seem to be approiate. Since i dont havethe capital right now to purchase my own shredder i was considering using a third party to shred and sort then refine.

**Decycle** · 03-06-2013, 12:13 PM

Originally Posted by conrad4784

A knife lol we focus mainly on it equipment desktops laptops routers servers. Etc.. i have been paying my employee to dismantle and sort the servers and desktops with drills but with higher volume this approach doesnt seem to be approiate. Since i dont havethe capital right now to purchase my own shredder i was considering using a third party to shred and sort then refine.

Now I feel bad cause you came up with such a long response. It was my attempt at a joke that its actually scrapping and not scraping!

Boo

**conrad4784** · 03-06-2013, 12:24 PM

You got me lol its all good guess i need to check my spelling

**PartTimeScrapper** · 03-06-2013, 04:27 PM

First off you dont want to shred your boards before sending them to a refiner. That is unless you plan to put a catch system on the shreader to catch all the precious metal dust you will loose from shredding it. As far as a refiner goes that wont cheat you? Well I would think you would have to pick one and get a working relationship with what ever one you decide to use. No mater what one you decide to use get a sample from them of your material after they process it to send for an independant assay. Thats the only way you will know if your getting cheated.

**happyscraper** · 03-06-2013, 05:06 PM

What part of Florida are you in?

**Mechanic688** · 03-06-2013, 06:21 PM

There is a bunch of reviews (good and bad) of some refiners over on the GRF. (Gold Refining Forum). You have to sign up to be able to read them.
From what I've read there is more bad ones than good.

I guess they have this attitude that there's always another unsuspecting customer to take the place of the pi$$ed off ones.
In this case it's seller beware!!

**ScrapYaHerd** · 03-06-2013, 06:50 PM

Originally Posted by conrad4784

Hello I have a IT business currently in flordia were I first started e recycling of our own e waste then I moved into buying broken desktops and laptops at a flat rate per machine to scrap. I am looking to ramp up into a full e waste recycler. Im assuming the big boys in recycling ewaste ship there tractor trailer loads to refiners where they get the best profit vs reselling am I correct in this assumption? If so does anyone have a good contact for a refiner that wont cheat me. Ive had that happen before. Also any other suggestions for a start up ewaste recycler would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

And what is your competitive advantage over the hundreds of ewaste recyclers in Florida?

**FourNines** · 03-06-2013, 07:37 PM

Conrad4784 you have been given some good information and I suggest you do some more research on dealing with refiners. Most have minimum weight requirements, processing fees of at least a dollar a pound no matter what the quantity of PMs in your scrap, and lead times in excess of 45 days.

If it were me, I would find two refiners that I felt comfortable with after initial contact and send them both the same type of boards. Have a rep at both places during processing, and have a independent assay done of the material. From there you can compare the two and hopefully make a decision on who your refiner will be for your future scrap.

Originally Posted by ScrapYaHerd

And what is your competitive advantage over the hundreds of ewaste recyclers in Florida?

Really? With all due respect, was that sort of reply even necessary?

**conrad4784** · 03-07-2013, 10:00 AM

jacksonville fl

**conrad4784** · 03-07-2013, 10:01 AM

thank you for the help! I deal with a couple scrap companies in jacksonville having an IT company on ocassion I purchase units from them. On ocassion I see them loading complete desktops laptops and it equipment without removing any of the motherbaords or cpu. Would they not make more profit removing the parts separting them into grades and then having them refined? I had a member on the site that told me there process is to prep, grind, sort, sample, melt, assay, then cut a check to you after processing I wonder if this is what they are doing.

**URBANERECYCLING** · 03-07-2013, 03:51 PM

Because you are coming from an IT foundation and not a scrap background it looks like you might be putting the proverbial horse before the cart.....There are many steps to even start considering a refiner and even then it doesnt always make sense....".A journey of a 1000 miles begins with the first step" I knew I would put the philosophy degree to use eventually...

**Phantoms001** · 03-07-2013, 04:41 PM

Scott always talks about finding someone that understands the process to represent your materials for a %. This would seem the best place to start. If you can find someone that knows what is going on, already has a relationship with a few refiners, and is willing to represent your material, it seems you are more likely to come out ahead paying them a % vs. getting cheated.

Like Mechanic posted, I've read tons of bad reviews where refiners cheated people, almost to the point of being silly. I've seen people give up hundreds of pounds of MBs just to be told that after the processing costs, they are owed 50.00.

This quickly ended my exploration of this idea and I found a few good buyers off the forum to deal with. Your certainly taking a big chance. Do your homework.

**ScrapYaHerd** · 03-07-2013, 06:05 PM

Originally Posted by FourNines

Conrad4784 you have been given some good information and I suggest you do some more research on dealing with refiners. Most have minimum weight requirements, processing fees of at least a dollar a pound no matter what the quantity of PMs in your scrap, and lead times in excess of 45 days.

If it were me, I would find two refiners that I felt comfortable with after initial contact and send them both the same type of boards. Have a rep at both places during processing, and have a independent assay done of the material. From there you can compare the two and hopefully make a decision on who your refiner will be for your future scrap.

Really? With all due respect, was that sort of reply even necessary?

Conrad comes on here asking advice for a start up ewaste business. I think the #1 success factor to any business is to figure out it's competitive advantage whatever it may be and focus on that. You can learn something new every day...

Competitive Advantage

**jimmybay** · 03-07-2013, 10:22 PM

I think we all know you could have phrased it better if you were trying to help.

**conrad4784** · 03-08-2013, 08:41 AM

I do think scrapyaherd does have a point with every business even my IT company you do have to have a competitive edge otherwise nobody would switch to using your services wether it be better customer service, better prices paid to suppliers of IT equipment, etc.. I was looking into providing profit sharing where we would take a businesses slightly dated units refurbish the ones that can be and reselling them through the channels I have for my IT company. I would then cut them a check or cash for a percentage of the sold units and the recycle rates for the non repairable units. As far as I know nobody does this in jacksonville that I know of yet. I could be wrong. Phantoms001 idea to find someone who understands the process and would represent my material for a percentage might be the best approach. I need to do more homework

**URBANERECYCLING** · 03-08-2013, 12:17 PM

There are some of the biggest Telecom Resellers and asset recovery companies based in Florida that cover the Jacksonville market. I set up the recycling division for one such company. There is a massive massive market for resellable telecom items well beyond the usual that we delve into on a daily basis here.

**aurum** · 03-08-2013, 07:56 PM

When selecting a refiner, you will have to be very careful. A lot of the so-called refiners are only buyers, who in turn send the material to a real refiner. There are only a handful of true primary refiners worldwide. If you want to deal directly with them, two come to mind, Xstrata recycling in Canada and Umicore in Belgium. Needless to say, you will need big quantitites, 40,000 lbs minimum for boards or other gold bearing materials last time I heard. Umicore has a website with some technical information.

Been scraping on my own for awhile looking ramp up into a full recycling company

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