Value for Money

This week I have had a concerted go at dubious charity recycling services. You may have noticed and the hits on this blog would suggest that you have. I am glad. It is a disgrace. Business has a responsibility to be responsible. That is why the banking crisis was so unpopular. Responsibility with our money had gone right out of the window.

Deep down everyone knows that businesses have to make profits. That is why the phrase ‘value for money’ is so deep in our consciousness. You get it in the supermarket every week; stuff you buy that makes you go ‘wow that’s expensive’. We will pay a little more for a brand or conspicuous, definable quality, but there is a limit.

SME businesses have the same reactions to services or products they use. Really big businesses tend to have different drivers because their size has overtaken their attitude to price, and their responsibilities are more ‘official’ for wont of a better word. For instance, our toner service costs £34.50 a box and each box holds about 20 used toner cartridges. If you are filling 4 boxes a week as some of our clients do, it is not a ‘cost’, it is a service. The sheer volume of waste needs to be dealt with and we deal with it as regular as clockwork. But to someone who might take two years to fill one box, £34.50 sounds a lot.

This is why it is smaller businesses who are more susceptible to a free recycling service. If you are big you tend to be aware of all the regulations, because you have people whose job it is to comply with those sort of things, but if you are an SME you may not be quite so up to date. And the idea of your 10 old PC’s going to help kids is fundamentally attractive. And that nice man on the phone told you he does everything properly and it is, after all, free.

I just had a great conversation with a new customer. He had been let down by his previous supplier and turned to us because of all the things I bang on about in this blog. He wanted the right credentials, the right paperwork and a demonstrably secure process. His backside was on the line and although he was wary of excessive costs it was the value for money he bought. He would worry about free. He would worry about something going wrong. But that is not to say he is not concerned about the environment too.

We all are. Not in a standing up and shouting about it sense, or a voting Green Party sense, but in a ‘this is just plain commonsense’ sort of way. That is why we expect businesses to be responsible. We expect them to check out this stuff and not get caught out, but we are suckers for a good charity at the end of the day. It’s always for kids too.

The reason I have highlighted this issue so strongly this week is that this is a con trick. It is bad enough putting your data security at risk but these people are also damaging the environment, even if they are exporting used kit legally. That stinks as far as I am concerned.

I do think that profitable businesses should donate to charity. I help them do it sometimes. But there are several fundamentals you really must not forget when disposing of IT assets. First and foremost get the data sorted properly. This really has to cost you money I am afraid, if you want to ensure your data is not recoverable. Roughly £5 per hard drive should cover it, maybe a little less if you have hundreds to do, but it is more or less a fixed cost because of the license fees.

Secondly, make sure that none of your disposal is destined for landfill. And that means do not give it to a charity unless they can prove to you that they do not allow that to happen, and that any exports they are involved with are all legal and above board.

Amazingly these are the two things most SME’s fail to realise. They are apathetic about data security and blasé about the recycling aspect. Far too many just see the cost. But with the risk of fines for data breach and the potential damage to the environment, it is not about cost. It is, like just about anything else in life, including the price of fish, about value for money.

Recycle with your head, not your heart

Most people are Nice. Many (like me) are occasionally grumpy when cornered but given a friendly approach and a bit of TLC and they open up, answer your question and move on from there. It can still be a no but it is a nice no.

After some thirty five years in sales and customer service one way or another, I am used to a no. I don’t get offended by it as an answer. Not if it is delivered with a smile and a shrug of the shoulders because it is not personal.

But when you find someone who has been tricked into recycling with a shyster, and you try to put them right, you have to take care. I am learning that slowly. Because often people have been taken in by the idea of doing good. They think they are donating to a charity and that makes them feel good. Then some old fool like me comes along and bursts their bubble.

Let’s get one thing perfectly clear. Exporting second hand IT equipment to Africa is not a good thing at all. Even if it is done by a charity, and even if it really does get to a kid (not all do by any means) it is still going to end up in landfill one day fairly soon. We are merely exporting our problems and doing untold damage to the planet. I cannot accept that is a good thing.

It is not actually illegal to export ‘working’ equipment. This is where we enter one of those grey areas you need a law degree to get out of to be honest. I need to issue a waste transfer note to collect anything for recycling which means it is waste, but if it is in working condition I can then send it straight out to Ghana.

Responsible recyclers have a problem with that. Our first principle is to keep things out of landfill and even if that clapped out PC works for six months it is still going to get put in the ground, by yet another bare foot, underfed child paid a pittance in terrible conditions. Ergo donating equipment to a charity that will export stuff legally is a bad thing. Giving it to a shyster that will do it illegally is so much worse, and telling the difference between the two is really hard.

So if green is important to you, giving your old kit to a charity is a non-starter, unless their operations are exclusively in this country, or another country covered by decent WEEE regulations. Equally unfortunately for you, that knocks out more or less all of the free collection services. Most of these use (and abuse) the charitable model and unless your kit is reasonably new the only way to make cash out of it was to flog it for illegal export. Or skimp on the paperwork and the data erasure.

And that really would put the cat amongst the pigeons because there are a lot of people getting rid of their stuff for free. The entire back catalogue of this blog explains why that is generally a terrible idea. Not only are these people getting fooled into thinking they are doing something nice, but they are also taking unbelievable risks with their data security.

I am fairly sure that people simply hear or see the word charity and they let their hearts rule their heads. Because this is not their money they are donating remember. This is those three old PC’s from accounts. They imagine the happy smiling faces of African children joyfully working on their new computer and pat themselves on the back. The idea that they should do due diligence and work out what is really happening does not even enter their heads.

But it should. Their data is on those hard drives. And their moral responsibility should make them at least ask a few questions. Like what real use is a clapped out 5 year old desktop? Scrap value is a fiver and yet this ‘charity’ is going to do what with it?

Even if their data is properly dealt with (it is possible but unlikely on a free collection) they are ignoring the fact that we are exporting our waste to landfill on another continent. That is not something to make your heart sing my dears. It is quite the opposite.

I am not saying every charity is bad by any means. I have problems with the level of admin costs with almost all of them, and the fact that they have highly paid executives, but a lot of good work is clearly being done all over the world. But in this instance, ask some hard questions with your head.

Is this export legally done? If yes, the charity will have an export license of some sort, some sort of proof they are allowed to do what they do. It is not unreasonable in this day and age to ask to see a copy. I can email you a PDF of any certificate or license we have, right now.

How do they deal with the stuff they have exported at end of life? Are they arranging for ethical recycling? Or is it being disposed of locally (IE landfill)?

There is a huge campaign building against the amount of legal WEEE hitting Africa. There is an Environment Agency task force, there are prosecutions, just Google it. But if you know where to go you can easily get £200 a pallet for any old junk if you are willing to take the risk. And a lot of these not for profit fronts have a business raking it in behind them.

EReco are a business. Of course we want to make a profit. We put a value on our services that some people appreciate. Others don’t and you can tell me no thanks not today, any time you like. That is your prerogative. But please, don’t be fooled by this disgrace. If you are ‘giving’ to charity, check it out. Ask some questions.

I have. I am having an interesting email correspondence with one 'charity' who doesn't want to answer my questions. It is like getting a straight answer out of Tony Blair.  So far he has said he is careful where he sends kit, and that it is really only practical if it is less than five years old. He also let slip that Uganda, that world economic powerhouse, has just banned the import of used electronic equipment.

That alone should make you think.

A Party Political Broadcast on Behalf of the eReco Party

I am sure you haven’t really noticed but there is an election looming. Luckily our politicians are too busy running the country to start campaigning three months before the polls open, so there is every chance you may have forgotten all about it. But whilst Red Ed has been trying to weaponise the NHS the Green party and environmental issues have been rising slowly to the surface.

This is interesting. No really, it is. Personally I believe the new generation of voters, those that can be bothered to turn up at the polls of course, are more attuned to green issues. Indeed, one pundit I caught on the radio recently was talking about both UKip and the Green’s winning seats off the big boys as different issues resonate with the electorate.

Now Nigel Farage and I would agree about many things. I like a pint too, and until very recently I smoked, quite often whilst muttering darkly about some crackpot European problem. But I would not vote for his party. And having looked into the policies of the Green’s I am not sure they are any less exposed to fairly extreme views and lunatic members.

But that is not the point of course. The vast majority of the voting public do not read the manifesto’s or even look at the web sites. They just see good old Nige with a pint in his hand calling Cameron and Miliband names, or they hear about the Green Party and think that a protest vote in favour of the planet might not be a bad idea.

However, as I alluded to earlier, perhaps because the youngsters have been exposed to ‘green’ ideas in their formative years much more than their parents ever were, the electorate is slowly becoming more aware of environmental policy and therefore the major parties have to take heed.

Sustainability really ought to be on the agenda therefore. If I were advising the big three I would be telling them to avoid the crackpot issues and concentrate on things that resonate. Making our lives as sustainable as possible ought to be one of those statements that even Red Ed could swallow rather easier than a bacon sandwich.

It is certainly a question I will be asking on the doorstep. Will the right honourable twit commit to having a sustainability test on all government regulated or controlled activities? Let’s be a lot tougher on people who waste resources and help those who try to make things go further.

Self interest would force me to add some data security principles to my list, but I am not sure a man who once claimed for a duck house would understand my point. I will settle for a grownup, joined up policy on sustainability and a reasonable attitude to business.

My mantra there is educate not regulate, but I am not holding my breath on either issue.