Q&A: Electronics-recycling business aids environment, people

Blue Star Recyclers is, in a way, a recycled business itself, Blue Star President Bill Morris says.

The Colorado Springs company’s roots lie in Blue Star Electronics, which took businesses’s outdated computer equipment and helped sell it on eBay, Craigslist and elsewhere to businesses or residents who couldn’t afford new equipment. So while BSE was not a recycler, it did support “reuse,” Morris noted.

But the company struggled as advances in computer technology made it difficult to resell the used electronics for a profit. By last summer, Morris said, the company was unable to keep up the rent on its warehouse facility on Elkton Drive.

Enter Tony and Mary Fagnant, who own the facility. They stepped in to purchase BSE and its assets, adopted a new name and mission, and brought in Morris as a partner to lead the company.

Morris is a 25-year veteran of the communications and electronics industry. He’s a former program manager for Community Intersections, a local nonprofit serving adults with disabilities. Blue Star partners with Community Intersections; eight disabled workers earn a salary disassembling and sorting electronics for Blue Star in a training/work program. The idea is that some will transition to full-time employment in the community. The first such worker from the CI program will be promoted to regular employment with Blue Star in June, Morris said.

“Unwanted electronics are fuel for the economy, and our mission at Blue Star is to create jobs by recycling electronics,” Morris said.

Blue Star Recyclers also gives back to the community through a program that provides nonprofit agencies, schools and others organizations a way to raise funds through electronics-recycling events. Blue Star has held six events so far this year, raising more than $3,000 for area nonprofits.

Question: Blue Star Recyclers serves both businesses and residents. Can you provide an overview of Blue Star’s services?

Answer: The primary business focus at Blue Star Recyclers is to provide ethical end-of-life electronics recycling and secure data-destruction services for businesses in our area. Unlike residents, businesses are required by Colorado law to recycle their electronic waste. While most large businesses in our area are aware of and comply with the law, most smaller businesses in Colorado are unaware of the law — and thus are not recycling their electronic waste. That doesn’t mean they are tossing this potentially hazardous waste in the trash or landfill. Most people (residents and businesses) have an innate sense that throwing away electronic waste material is wrong. So, just like at home, small businesses tend to stack material in their closets, basements or storage facilities.
To help small businesses get this material out from underfoot and get it to us, Blue Star Recyclers created the first Electronics Recycling Route Service for businesses in our community, with no additional pickup fees or minimums required by most other recyclers. Recycling is all about convenience and motivation. We have attempted to provide both.

Q: How much electronic waste does the U.S. generate? What are the hazards of that e-waste?

A: Sixty-five million PCs become obsolete every year in the U.S., and the EPA estimates 1.9 million tons of e-waste are land-filled in the U.S. annually. E-waste is growing three times faster than all other waste streams, and will age a landfill faster than any other waste stream. Electronic waste is considered toxic and hazardous for a number of reasons: CRTs contain 4 to 12 pounds of lead and account for 40 percent of all lead in landfills. Computers contain a variety of other toxic/heavy metals, and e-waste accounts for 70 percent of heavy metals in landfills, with potential contamination for soil and groundwater. Incinerating computer plastics and insulated copper wire generates toxic emissions.

Q: What are the most common items you receive for recycling?

A: Unwanted or nonfunctioning IT equipment — including computers, printers and monitors — makes up about 60 to 65 percent of what we receive. The next-largest percentage comes from television sets and VCRs/assorted video equipment. The remaining material is a mix of audio (stereo) equipment, kitchen appliances (microwave ovens), vacuum cleaners and anything else that plugs into the wall or runs on batteries. The only items we cannot take are major appliances and air conditioners.

Q: What happens to the recycled electronics?

A: Most of the electronics we collect are disassembled into base materials at our facility here in Colorado Springs. Primary base materials include metals, plastics, circuit boards, wiring, etc., and each base material is sent to an ethical downstream processor who turns that base material into a substance for remanufacture. This means less virgin materials and natural resources are used in the manufacture of new electronics.

Q: You mentioned that you do “secure data destruction.” What does that entail?

A: Data security — especially for financial, legal and health care organizations — is critical. Most identify theft is directly linked to computer hard drives ending up in the wrong hands. “Wiping” a hard drive usually costs over $6, but the data contained on the hard drive is still accessible in the wrong hands. For $5 to $10 each, our hard-drive shredder turns the hard drive to mulch, which is guaranteed to be unreadable.

Q: Unlike, say, Boulder, the Colorado Springs area does not have a great reputation for recycling. Why? What can be done to change that?

A: I remember reading a report a few years ago and seeing how Boulder was rated No. 2 in the country for practicing sustainability when less than 100 miles to the south our community was rated 98th. We all know the political landscape of both communities, but it seemed strange to me that Boulder was practicing a principle that should have much deeper roots here. That is, the very root of the word “conservative” implies conservation (not to waste). While I am no expert on Boulder, what I have learned is that back in the ’70s, a few residents there with vision and courage proposed a goal of zero waste and went about the work of making it a reality. I understand it wasn’t all that popular in the beginning, but because of a commitment to that principle, today it is easier to recycle something in Boulder than it is to throw it away. In Colorado Springs it is still easier to throw something away. I don’t believe this means most of us here don’t care. I believe it means most of us here don’t know. When we know better  — that recycling is better than land-filling — we will do better.
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Answers are edited for brevity and clarity. Call the writer at 636-0272.