Thanks to these firms, it’s a little easier being green
By Adina Genn
Friday, March 30, 2007
Drive by any landfill, and you see why champions of “green” causes say the public and the business world have a lot to learn about environmental friendliness.
Take Islandia-basede-Scrap Destruction. Launched in September 2006, the company recycles unwanted computers, printers, copiers, televisions, fax machines and more. The byproducts never wind up in a landfill, according to co-owner Trace Feinstein.
Materials are brought to the company’s 17,000-square-foot warehouse, where they’re sorted and crushed on custom-built machinery that processes five to seven tons an hour, according to Feinstein. The material is then sent to a Canadian refinery, where it’s sorted by raw material – such as copper – and sold on the open market. Companies “are always looking for materials,” Trace Feinstein said.
The Feinsteins entered the field while running a Brooklyn-based paper-shredding company. At the time, clients asked about recycling electronics; requests became more prevalent as people replaced their obsolete computers with newer technology. The Feinsteins sold the shredding company in 2004 and spent the next two years researching the e-waste industry.
Most electronics contain lead, mercury and other hazardous materials, according to the Silicon Valley Toxic Coalition. Corpora-tions and their recyclers could be held liable if their materials, traced by serial number, are found in unregulated landfills, or even Third World countries, according to a November 2006 article published in the industry publication Waste Age.
The same is true for companies that don’t properly dispose of hard drives, which often contain sensitive data.
Clients of e-Scrap Destruction can watch the demolition via closed-circuit camera, and receive a certificate demonstrating that a particular item was properly discarded.
With a four-person sales department, e-Scrap has a couple of hundred customers, according to Trace Feinstein. They want to go national, “but don’t have the funds to educate” the entire country, so for now they’re focused on the East Coast, he added.
Education is also a key factor for East Hampton-based GreenLogic Energy, which offers alternative energy products (such as solar panels) designed to reduce costs for homeowners, businesses and government agencies. The company has 27 clients and is adding about a client a week, according to co-owner Marc Clejan.
But the sales cycle can take at least two months, as prospects learn about relevant esthetics, costs and technology, Clejan said. To speed up that process, as summer nears and the East End prepares for its busy season, Clejan is gearing up to offer grassroots workshops to local civic groups and “bring up the learning curve.”
Created and Maintained by PTH Associates, Inc. Copyright E-Scrap Destruction 2008
