The things we do for love...as
10cc once memorably sang...but clearly I mean the things that we do to make a
buck, as it were. Because despite all our focus on sexy IT equipment and all
the dangers of data breaches, at the end of the day we are removing ‘waste’,
something that is no long needed by the current owner, for whatever reason.
The dictionary definition of
waste = (of a material, substance, or by-product) eliminated or discarded as no
longer useful or required after the completion of a process. So there you have
it, we deal in waste, and we try to get it back out there doing something
useful.
But the thing most people forget
is that for every shiny Apple Mac discarded which a recycling business can most
certainly sell on for a tidy sum, there are van loads of old tat, bits of
packaging, wood and metal, seriously old PC’s, broken monitors etc.
Whenever I see a special offer I
look for the weasel words. You know what I mean...that lovely new mobile comes
with unlimited data but only between the hours of 1am and 5am. The rest of the
time you pay. So yes, I am a jaundiced old cynic, but usually I am proved
right. There are hidden nasty surprises and you have to consider them before
signing on the dotted line.
Most of the special offers in the
IT recycling sector revolve around ‘free’ collections. Normally to get one you
have to have (a) a lot of stuff, and (b) old tat does not count. So what these
loveable souls are really saying is we want anything with a resale value but no
old tat. They will take the old tat if there is enough good stuff, but
reluctantly, and when the van comes it is not unusual for the drivers to refuse
stuff.
Two things come to my mind.
Firstly, are they offering any cash back? And secondly, how much is it costing
the clients to get rid of the stuff they don’t take? Because the old tat still
has to go.
A reputable ITAD service provider
charges because we have costs. In the real world, well away from Arthur Daley’s
lock up, you have to pay drivers, road tax, diesel, etc. You have to have a
secure warehouse facility, and the processes needed to be followed to comply
with various ISO’s and ADISA requirements are arduous and costly. You have to
have considerable insurance to protect clients against disaster. And cleaning,
testing and selling kit on costs money too.
For many reasons, pricing is an
art not a science. Whenever I talk to a customer, I try to impart a bit of
realism into conversations. In many cases, that old PC you remember paying an
arm and a leg for is now the modern equivalent of a Betamax video recorder, or
indeed a video recorder. It is too slow and out of date to be of much value. So
you might have 300 of them but they are not worth a light so yes, you are going
to have to pay to get rid of them.
But there are gems hidden away
there. The trick is identifying them, valuing them and then working out how
best to deal with the customer. Because a lot of the costs here are
indefinable. How much work will we have to do to get those printers operational
again? How many of those monitors will pass a PAT test? How long is a piece of
string?
The best of our customers
appreciate all this and are probably also more concerned about being totally
data safe. Most know that over the course of a year or two they will give us
some good kit but they also get us to take their tat too. We never cherry pick.
We never leave anything behind. And our guys have been known to dismantle
desks, take down shelves and clean up after themselves.
The reality of life is that
recycling is going to cost 99% of businesses money.
Some wash their faces with
remarketing revenue, but they are the ones who are refreshing regularly because
their activities demand it. The vast majority of people pay a little and do
some good. Many are not concerned about getting a few quid back as long as they
are data safe and they get good service.
So what will we do for love? Just
about anything. We certainly walk in the rain and the snow to pick up that last
piece of racking and even if we do think a part of us is dying we will still
take that rain soaked pile of old terminals from your outdoor cage. When the
next person offers to collect your stuff for free, ask yourself whether they
will go that extra mile to watch your back?
Art for art’s sake, money for
God’s sake. And remember, the ICO is NOT firing Rubber Bullets!
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