Hey guys and gals! It's been quite some time since I've been on the forum. Back in the day I use to spend many hours on here. Learning and discovering the tricks and trades of electronic recycling. I gained a mass amount of knowledge and also enjoyed the camaraderie of other scrappers. I've been real busy since my last post... Real busy. I still work a full time job but have taken electronic recycling to my highest level. I now employ 2 part time employees, rent a 6000 sq ft warehouse and office, own a 26 ft box truck and forklift, fully permitted by my local dept of environmental quality, hold contracts with 7 municipalities for electronic collection events, contracts with 4 hospitals and many universities, colleges, and high schools to handle all of their electronics and universal waste (batteries, light bulbs and electronics) in which they pay me to recycle their material and lastly agreements with multiple landfills to handle their electronics they pull from the landfill. Because of all of this, my normal full time job, and a wife and kids I had to step away from the forum. It seemed every free minute I had was spent on the forum. Oh and I got into a little trouble with my local regulatory agency for disposing of my computer plastics in a city funded recycling center. Oops, I seriously didn't know they didn't accept that type of plastic. That lesson cost me a notice of violation and a hefty $1200 fine. At that time my wife asked me to free up time for the family and so I agreed with her I'd step away from the forum. Besides that, all is well. I can't believe how far I've taken this. I still remember asking the forum simple questions like, "what's a CPU?". My biggest accomplishment and eye opener for me in the past year was landing contracts with various cities to hold electronics collection events. We had one that saw over 2000 cars come in. Even though 60 percent of the material the general public brought in were televisions, I was able to charge the city by the pound for these and found a reputable company to take them for free. In fact the same company helped staff the event at no charge as well. my contracts And agreements keep the warehouse full most weeks and gives enough work for my two part time employees. Now when I ship out my scrap Im moving multiple tons versus the day I'd put it all in the back of my f150. To be honest, my costs have gone up tremendously and my profit margins are a lot less but because of volume, it makes it worthwhile. With more time and experience our efficiencies will improve and when they do, so will our profits.
I may not be around as frequently as before, but I think it's time I can allow myself some time to enjoy this incredible forum again. I look forward to hearing from you guys.
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