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I noticed once a year or so someone or some company does a drive up e-waste type of program at the fairgrounds or some other place. Anyone ever do this? I'm thinking about flyers and social media for a weekend just after the holidays. I figure lots of electronics will be thrown out after the holidays. Good time to procure them for recycling?
Recycling drives are great for the community they are in and for getting your name out there. If you do not like loosing money or breaking even, I would not suggest doing them.
Make sure you set the guidelines very clearly as to what you will and will not take. Then be prepared to turn some people away because they will try to bring those items anyway. In the end your load will be 75% CRT TV'S and monitors, 23% printers, 1% random junk, and 1% computers.
I am not saying you should not do one, they are a lot of fun. Just know what you are signing up for.
I'm from Wyoming, but I've been to Montana a lot (Never done an event in that state, though). I've been doing collection events down here for two years, and can tell you pretty much anything that you would ever want to know.
First, if you don't mind me asking, what part of the state are you in? You don't have to share if you don't want to, but I can give you a lot more advice if I know. Your results will vary based on the part of the state.
In Wyoming, my events have done very well. Here's a PR photo from one of our events last year:
http://i1017.photobucket.com/albums/...psokk9rvgu.jpg
That was done in a town of about 5000 people. We filled the bed in that town. We've run events in a town that has about 10,000 people. For that, we used to use this truck:
http://i1017.photobucket.com/albums/...ps614ba918.jpg
That's a Ford E350 with a 15' body. I've filled it about 1/3 of the way full from events in that town. You'll notice in that photo that the truck is being dragged with a tow strap- that's it being hauled off after the engine quit one it (Nothing else worked correctly either). This is another photo from a school that we picked up from:
http://i1017.photobucket.com/albums/...ps02d05a83.jpg
What you don't see is that there was another pickup truck behind that one. The Chevrolet is filled to the brim with desktops, and there's miscellaneous on the trailer. The other truck was a longbed also filled with desktop computers. That school learned of us because of the collection event we did in their neighboring town.
Events can work really well. Newspaper ads are the best- don't waste your money on radio ads, but some stations may give you on-air time or mentions during their morning shows. If so, of course you'll want to take that. Don't pay for radio ads though- they're a huge waste of money. Newspaper ads are worth it- get in all of the papers, and post flyers in the towns (For small events- you'll never canvas a larger town).
I've never done a collection event in the winter, so I don't know how they will work this time of the year. I do my first event of the year on Earth Day, and collect through the spring. You'll want at least two weeks to run the ads. I figure that you want 6 weeks of planning to make sure you have a location an aren't rushing anything.
I'll give you more tips in another post, but knowing where you are in Montana will really help there.
I'm in the capital
Helena is a very good place to be based out of. I worked with a place a couple of years ago that did collections throughout the state (They were based in Billings). What they told me was that their drives in the western part of the state did well, but Billings and anything east of there wasn't nearly as good. They actually said that they only did the Billings drive, because they were based there.
They've really cut back on drives. They really did well in Helena, Butte, and Missoula. They had events up by Kalispell, and they did alright for the amount of people there. Bozeman did alright, too. Here's the thing: They charge the towns to do an event. I heard from a lady in Powell that they wanted over $10,000 to do a Cody/Powell event. I ended up doing that event instead ;)
Since they're not doing hardly any events, you can feast all day long. I hope you have a truck and decent sized trailer- you'll get stuff. Also, the other outfit wouldn't take CRTs without a fee, so you'll see a fair amount of towers and laptops, but be prepared for printers, scanners, keyboards, ans a lot of odds and ends (I always got a lot of cords at my events!)
You don't need the county fairgrounds, but if you can get use of them for cheap, it could be a good place. We've used all of the following places for events:
*A trade show- we had a booth set up there
*Radio station parking lot
*Parking lot next to a park (In conjunction with an Earth Day event)
*High School parking lot
*Church parking lot
There are tons of options- as long as people can find you, any location that's not in the middle of nowhere should work fine. Talk to the city to see if you need permits (You probably won't, but I landed a munixipal recycling contract because of this), get some signs and banners printed, run some ads, and give it a shot. It worked really well for the outfit in Billings, and I've done pretty well in the smaller towns in Wyoming
These are pictures of an Earth Day collection event at one campus of one of our largest clients. The event started a 8am and finished at 11am. We filled two semi trailers full. 75% was CRT's and tube TV's. The client pays by the pound for two event's like this each year. It's definitely NOT a money maker, but it gives the clients environmental department that warm fuzzy feeling.
http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0pm0pxro.jpg
http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/...psk1q1nioj.jpg
http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/...pshd3wuvwj.jpg
Depends on the area mostly. Around here you can junk a TV with the trash and the city will pick it up free. In places where that is not an option and people have to pay to take it to the recycler (even if it is just a few dollars) they will sit on it till a sponsored ewaste day comes around and then junk it. Sooner or later all the old glass sets will be junked and there will be nothing but LCDs to take.
Not sure how things are set up in your city, but I know on my sandbar, we're fond of using parking lots of box stores.(with permission of course). We're a tad different tho as people arrive an leave on my sandbar on weekends, an stay an relax an stuff during the week, so Kmart will let me(or anyone) run an event in their parking lot as they aren't busy. They win also by the folks attending the event will usually pop into the store also.
Now this won't work if your stores lots are always full, busy, etc. Church lots can work very well also if you have any sizable ones near or around you. To add on to my big box store thought, you could also locate businesses closed on weekends, or whenever you plan to hold the event an see if you can use their lot. Several companies down here allow this, from a HVAC shop, Motorcycle garage, to a Pottery store and a steak house type restaurant(only open w-sat.).
I would think it's worth it if for no other reason then you now have you name out there. People will know now who to call for a tv, or a steel door, or whathaveyou. Any publicity is good publicity as they say. Keeping that in mind, have plenty of business cars, flyers, magnets, etc, etc. on hand to give to people. Someone who isn't a client now, is one that could be one in the future.
Good luck to those who put on events. Need more of them!
Sirscrapalot - I see litter as part of a long continuum of anti-social behaviour. - Bill Bryson
Not e-waste, but I have taken refined metal to sell to a larger refiner, they allow me to trade straight across for bullion, metal for metal. Since they do not deal with anything that has cadmium or mercury they either give it to me if left by a customer, or put me in direct contact with the person who owns it.
Always good to ask if you can reciprocate business. Not many people do, I have generated a lot of material and contacts in this way.
Scott
We have a K-Mart in one of our towns, but with only 10,000 people, we didn't need a very large space.
Another idea: Before our old computer shop was flooded, we had ample parking there. I ran an event outside on a Saturday (That's the best day to do a collection drive), so not only did I have free parking, but I was able to promote myself twice. You may be able to latch on with a computer store or repair shop- they get PR, and you may get a client ;)
My sandbar isn't much bigger then your area Matador. :) I got more in common with Wyoming/Montana then I do big city places.
Our Kmart isn't even packed during the Holiday shopping time. When it opened they made a huge parking lot for it, as at the time, it was the only big box retailer down here. No Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes, nothing. Walmart came in a year or so later, as did the other two. To this day we still don't have many big chain box stores. I love it tho. Like living in the country but with an ocean on all sides. :)
Sirscrapalot - Snap, Crackle, Pop! - Rice Krispies...they do talk.
Cody has a Walmart, a Tractor Supply, and a K-Mart. Every year in the summer (We're a tourist season, so this is the busy time of the year), they hold an RV expo in the parking lot.
On the inside, the sign saying "Thanks you for shopping at Big K-Mart" is missing half the letters. I don't know how that building hasn't been turned into office cubicles....
K-mart is the cockroach of Retail.
All the troubles they've had over the years, an still survive.
Only thing to survive a Nuke...roaches an Kmart.
Sirscrapalot - Attention shoppers, Blue Light special will be starting in 5 minutes! - Kmart
Kmart sucks from Rain man.
I remember back in WWI, the war to end all wars...
No I'm not that old, but I thought of such "old timer" sayings popular in times gone by.
The talk of K-Mart, came apart, aka S.S. Kresge
I remember that they still had S.S. Kresge stores back in the 70's. There was one on Lake Street in South Minneapolis MN next to a cemetery. It was a interesting store as it had many surplus type consumer items. Not much of anything in the military surplus field. But they had plenty of new old stock and the LP records and 8 track tapes that would have a small hole melted into them as they were sold as seconds or such.
I remember that they had a table with short sides full of tanned rabbit furs that were seconds with small holes and thin spots. But they were cheap.
The S.S. Kresge store even had a old soda fountain & ice cream counter, but there were still a few other places that still had the soda & ice cream stations from the past.
The talk of K-Mart just got me thinking of some of the roots of the discount department stores that grew from the five & dime stores of the past.
We have the Dollar stores, but they are dying out as there is not much that they can sell for a dollar that is worth buying these days.
K-Mart was more for the Martha Stewart wanna bees and pre-programmable folks that like the dream of great service at a bargain, yet most times find themselves looking for a store employee so they can find out how much something was as K-Mart was bad for mis-pricing and no prices on items.
K-Mart also was big on the lay away plans where you made payments on the items and they held them for you until you paid it off. Other stores offered the law away plans, but K-Mart seemed to enjoy the lay away scam. By the time you had it payed for it was most likely out of style or such.
Just some discount store memories.
In the 70's you could walk around in a K-Mart smoking cigarettes and no one paid it any mind.
But then you could drive around with your rifles and shotguns hanging in the back window of you PU truck, ammo on the dash and a cooler full of beer in the box. And not many paid it much mind as it was normal in many rural places.
the good old days when quality was important on the good stuff and the bargain stuff was most times made well enough.
We are the plastic throw away generation in so many ways.
I have a chance to do an electronics recycling program in conjuction with a church's big spring festival. I cannot get anyone from the local EPA office to call me back. I just want to make sure it is OK to do without being a certified recycler. For anyone who has done this in the past, did you have to get any kind of documentation and/or license from the EPA or Public Health office before hand? I know states may be different, but just curious. I am not going to do until I get the OK from the state. Thank you
We didn't have to, but we don't accept CRTs at all. Also, Wyoming is very relaxed, so you may have more to deal with in South Carolina.
You need to be certified in this state to handle large quantities of CRTs. Also, material intended for refurbishment/resale isn't counted towards that limit. Since we're a computer shop, desktops and laptops aren't intended for recycling in most cases. You decide when something is "recycling-bound".
Since you do more than scrap value on some items, that may be a good rule to be aware of....
Thank you for the advice! I was definetly not going to accept CRT's. I'll have the ability to design a flyer for the program, so I will be able to let people know what I will accept. Hopefully I can get some guidenace here locally. Thanks wyatt!!Quote:
Originally Posted by matador
Not a problem!
I may have an old copy of our flyer here- if so, I'll E-Mail it to you. The wording may give you some ideas. Make sure to state that you don't accept "Hazardous Waste"
That may be your "cover your a$$" feature.Quote:
Originally Posted by matador