Eve of Destruction

I get a lot of questions about how secure destruction companies can break into the product destruction arena, but the first and most basic is: Where do we find the products?

The most obvious source is a company’s current customer base, most of which have electronic product(s) that need to be destroyed and/or recycled. Additionally, as manufacturers of computers and their components continue to produce more environmentally friendly products and as older products are retired, this should be an increasing source of material for those companies that wish to perform computer destruction services.

PROSPECTING. Beyond the obvious, however, budding product destruction professionals can target two primary markets for prospects. The first is manufacturing companies. There is not a manufacturer in the land that does not have product rejects (products that fail to meet quality control standards) and surplus inventory, and many manufacturers have product recalls. Whereas it used to be common practice to simply "trash" such rejected or recalled products, responsible companies want to be sure their unwanted products are properly destroyed, whether for financial or liability related reasons.

The second source to target when prospecting for potential product destruction jobs is distribution companies. Once the products are out of the manufacturers’ hands, they generally become the responsibility of a distribution company. In this case, they all have product returns, surplus inventory and also product recalls.

After they have found their prospects, the second question most companies looking to enter the product destruction arena is: How do we destroy the product?

There are a lot of different types of equipment available to perform the destruction of unwanted products and much of it is the same equipment that a company may be using for document destruction. What matters most is what the customers’ requirements are and what constitutes destruction for them.

GETTING OUTFITTED. Once you know what your customers will be looking for in terms of desired output, you can begin to consider the many equipment choices.

When we first became involved in product destruction, we used our paper shredding equipment until our needs outgrew the equipment’s abilities. We then worked with various vendors to either custom build equipment or to purchase their off-the-shelf equipment. We currently use eight such pieces of equipment in our product destruction facility.

You may also be faced with having to decide if it is worthwhile to invest in equipment to help you land a particular job. Only you will know if you have enough volume to warrant such a purchase. However, should you decide against making such an investment at the outset, you do have options and can still go after such destruction jobs in the future by outsourcing the work and simply making your money on the spread.

This leads me to the next most common question those new to the field ask: How do we price the job?

DETERMINING YOUR PRICE. There are three major components to determining the pricing for a product destruction job:

The volume of material and how to destruct its components are the simple considerations, but the quality of material is what can be tricky. Always get a sample of the product before giving your potential customer a quote. The value of the byproduct can be your greatest variable. For example, if you are destroying pure metallic CDs or DVDs, you have a byproduct value that can exceed the price to destroy the material, so pending the incoming volume of material, you may be much more aggressive on your destruction price. On the other hand, if you accept a job destroying standard backup tapes with a metal hub, you have no byproduct value, and your price must factor in the cost to landfill the processed material.

As for finding markets for the byproducts that result from product destruction jobs, there are many resources, and it all depends on the product type. If plastic based, many firms located nationally and internationally can accept the material, and typically a broker is used to purchase the material. If you have metal products as a result of a job, you can typically find local companies to accept the material; and, of course, the same applies to any paper byproducts that are generated.

After you’ve addressed these basic questions regarding product destruction, there is still one important matter to consider, and that is: What security measures does the client require?

ENSURING SECURITY. At Total Product Destruction we have as many as 15 security criteria that we offer to our product destruction customers. As with any specialized service, you have the ability to charge your clients accordingly. Examples of the various security arrangements we provide include GPS tracking on all shipments to our facility, a security officer on-site to witness the destruction operations (ours is on duty from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.), video documentation of the entire destruction process and/or the ability for clients to dial into our camera system and, of course, a Certificate of Destruction that details that the needs of the client have been met.

If those new to the product destruction field take the time to ask themselves these basic questions and research the markets in their areas, they will probably find that they have the tools and knowledge they need to get started at hand.