Where Do We Go from Here?

So what do we do with the challenging economic thesis we are living through at this point and how it is affecting the aspects of the electronics recycling industry?

I am an avid cyclist. Being a shadow of five foot six inches tall on a good day and having a relatively high metabolism since birth, my cycling friends envy me as a good climber. When I was in my 20s, I pedaled wistfully past my older larger friends up the local mountains as they cursed me. I was in my prime, naïve and genuinely unaware of the talent I had. For me, it was just a nice means of exercising with the guys and a big hill meant suffering. So I sought to shorten the suffering as much as I could and get to the top to enjoy the ride down hill.

I am still a good climber, and in these tough economic times, I revere the challenges of a long steep hill for the sole purposes of conquering and getting to the top. But this time, I am "pulling" for my friends as we climb this hill together. I provide words of encouragement, hang back with them, and in some cases, lend a gentle palm on their back, even in my small stature, giving them enough of a shove to get all of us up the hill together.

And so it is with the recent state of the electronics recycling industry and the subsequent materials recovery enterprises. We are all climbing together this time.

Over the last two years, there has been a significant amount of "consolidation" in the electronics recycling industry with large, seemingly stand-alone organizations being swept up by perceived smaller organizations, which are now much larger. There were the not so large organizations acquiring the smaller enterprises, the "start-ups" spun up by the previous inflation of precious metals and commodity markets. There were the really small companies that snatched up their local municipalities, businesses and related companies, only to find out that a sound electronics and metals recycling business did actually require much more than a warehouse, a phone and a desk.

There have been small companies simply dissolving amidst the restructure of morphing state recycling laws because they could no longer keep up with the changes and demands of the laws, could not afford to discount their collection and processing fees and now had no place to ship the other electronic items that were not covered.

Many of the seasoned veterans of recycling and metals recovery, who have been around since before the "personal computer" came to life, have been through these "corrections" before and saw this coming long before the market saturation and steep discounts on recycling fees or high payments for scrap values became a problem.

As I am writing this, Barack Obama has made history and newspapers are experiencing a significant uptick in business. It is also no doubt an excellent time to be a news anchor, reporter and publisher of "The Times."

It is not a good time to be in real estate, but it is a good time to be a foreclosure auctioneer, a recruiter, an outsourcing company, in the food and liquor business, or any other "recession proof" business – if there really is such a thing. Pharmaceutical sales of anti-depressants and sleep agents are off the charts; these industries are now experiencing their own boom relative to other industry declines.

These are the times. And while we may be close to the worst recession our country has seen in over 30 years, with the lowest or simply non-existent commodities prices in history, these are the times. These are the times to restructure the recycling industry. These are the times to improve process, compliance, accountability and a recycling stewardship that goes way beyond just reducing your carbon footprint or increasing your green credits.

These are the times when we clean our room, and put things in order. Efficiencies and effectiveness are what helps us stretch a dollar and make it go farther. It may not mean that cleanliness is next to Godliness, but cleanliness may be next to compliance and compliance may mean the difference between increasing a green footprint or decreasing a carbon footprint.

When your business is in order, you work more efficiently. Not only can you see the processes more clearly, you can document them more easily. Documentation will help you achieve compliance and compliance will make you more efficient and more effective. Am I sounding like a broken record yet? It’s like the book – "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie…" Remember that one?

As the recession threatens to squeeze all of us way outside our comfort zones, it again reminds me of the suffering of a California mountain climb I reached in the middle of a hot August afternoon. It is difficult, you sweat a lot and you want to do nothing more than stop your bike and get off. But you don’t. You push one pedal over the other. You focus on staying the course and you look only a few feet ahead of you. Looking too far ahead can sometimes be a bad thing when you realize that the part of the hill you just crested only reveals yet another part of the climb. You persevere.

This is the time for the electronics recycling industry to focus on getting to the top of the mountain one pedal at a time. It is a time to work together to again realize at this time that proper recycling of electronic scrap and all of the components is not yet mature and still needs nurturing and encouragement.

We have 20 different E-waste laws around the country creating an assortment of challenges for OEMs, retail outlets, consumers, recyclers and the agencies that have to manage the attempts of legislature trying to do what is right and better than the other states – But we still have 28 more states to go, and we still have a number of electronic wastes without consideration, but still in need of a recycling promise to keep them out of a landfill.

Remember, recycling is not just about managing materials because they are or could be, hazardous in nature, but to ensure that if it can be recycled in such a way as to reduce the "carbon footprint," we should continue to focus on a way to make this recycling happen.

When the commodities markets begin to move upward in a relatively modest manner, things will settle down and a resurgence will occur once again. Will we see significant spikes in commodities and new business entries into the recycling industry again? I’m not an economist with a crystal ball, but I don’t think that likelihood is in anyone’s near future.

Over the years, there has been almost no barrier, environmental, regulatory or otherwise, to a new business entering the electronics recycling industry. But this economy created one of its own. With the skyrocketing prices primary commodities iron, copper and aluminum over the last three years, it was a modern day gold rush for new business, especially in states where electronics recycling would be partially subsidized by the government. This of course led to the largest export of electronic scrap that was not covered by the payment systems, but were a necessary service to provide customers who held the "covered" devices. This was simply not sustainable.

Remember, what I’ve always said, that "anything worth doing right is never easy or cheap." Those who are interested in providing a sound recycling service for years to come and are willing to make the investment to do it right, will likely also make the investment to weather the storms that come and the variety hills that so often make up the landscape of electronics recycling.

So when the meteoric decline of the primary commodities markets plummeted back to earth to a more normal state as they were in for the last 20-30 years, the rush was over. What remains are the organizations that are committed to a long-term environmental and economic solution that will be suited for organizations and recycling laws that will require a sustainable solution that will be able to manage the hilly landscape and the occasional mountain passes.

Now, where’s my helmet?

The author works for electronics recycling company AER Worldwide, Fremont, Calif.