The Thin Pancake Factor: the saying goes that it doesn’t matter how thin you pour a pancake, there are always two sides! The merits of “green” initiatives in the telecom and data industries, and the balance between the investments required to achieve bona fide results, are clearly documented on each side of the “Is it worth it?” pancake. Some organizations are mature in their investments and commitment to lowering carbon footprints, in critical areas that include recovering investments from supply chain end-of-life processing, and their practices of ethical processing that mitigate environmental or legislative risk. Others, however, remain loosely organized around high level initiatives while tons of hazardous and even valuable materials continue to end up in dumpsters and landfills - both domestically and internationally.

All of the carbon footprints lowered or eliminated through limited truck rolls or stronger IT utility management can be completely offset by those who continue to offload material within the gray area of price-per-pound scrap processing, or by those who have no collection and accounting processes at all. International and certain state laws are becoming enforceable against dumping or unaccountable actions, yet the policing of behavior and practices are no guarantee of compliance. With the advent of advanced technologies and simplified logistics, complexities, ethical processing and lowering carbon footprints can become a self-propelling culture around a plan that incentivizes everyone. Remember this: the threat of a heavy hammer never inspires everyone to “do the right thing”.

Make a Zero Landfill Objective Your Cornerstone
A complex initiative may be to lower your carbon footprint by 5%. This does not translate simply to the day-to-day operational environment where buy-in is essential for long term or sustainable success. A simple goal of “nothing goes in the landfill” is easy to communicate and understand, regardless of the end goal in the terms of management or stakeholder expectations. “Nothing goes in the landfill” actually creates an opportunity to liberate desperately needed cash to put back into operations, or the funding of interesting and exciting incentives that can be distributed on a competitive basis across geographical organizations or functional groups in a healthy and inspirational way.

Zero landfill means just that. It means that the price-per-pound guys are not allowed to cherry pick the electronic waste (eWaste) or the electronic scrap (eScrap) of value while containerizing the rest for shipment to unregulated third world labor forces without accountability or conscience. A zero landfill objective means that every possible system, subsystem, component, item, or scrap is resold, reused, or recycled without further impacting the environment and facilitated without unreasonable cost. Ethics may come at a price, yet most are unwilling to pay without some opportunity for certified and ethical revenue sharing after final disposition - and vendors must be positioned to fully facilitate these requirements in dynamic and shifting markets.

In the challenging times of cash flow and tight operating capital budgets, the practice of merely dumping valuable and semi-valuable systems, components, or materials is an oft-missed opportunity that is simple to reverse, manage, and leverage with the correct industry resources in place. Until just a few years ago, the remarketing, recycling, and raw materials reclamation functions were regional, vertical, or highly fragmented capabilities. Today, globally integrated capabilities are mature and available.

Many vendors were historically of paper or plastics processing DNA, or were highly specialized in spare parts, one or two types of equipment, or had an intimate knowledge of IT and not network, or the other way around. Today, fully integrated suppliers of supply chain management expertise exist that can extend end-of-life refresh requirements, cross sell and fully leverage or auction equipment regardless of functionality, sanitize media while certifying destruction, aggregate logistics with highly automated inventory systems, and seamlessly leverage mechanical eWaste and eScrap recycling, while effortlessly managing the timing of raw materials and commodity market sales and re-sales - even back into OEM materials pipelines to lower existing or contracted product pricing.

After simple analysis of processes related to asset life cycles and end-of-life practices, identifying where money is being wasted is not difficult. It becomes a question of how much is being wasted, and what could be done with the liberated cash to improve morale, environmental awareness, and perhaps a healthy level of competitive spirit between inter-departmental performance.

Integration and Investment Trumps Patchwork
Remarketing is an inexpensive model that requires little capital investment. Savvy buying agencies can simply and quickly build downstream and dumping channels for anything of value, and particularly channels for the less valuable and often hazardous materials. Time-tested per-the-pound models benefit only the buyer, not the seller necessarily or the secondary downstream buyer of waste or scrap. Companies that commit to, or continue to commit to, the proper infrastructure investment required to ethically and profitably manage disposition regardless of the equipment or material type have a different charter.

These companies are interested only in the long term momentum of the eWaste and eScrap processing markets, and are willing to accept smaller margins as this market matures. The companies that patch together resale, recycling, or downstream process management have less control of processes and demonstrable processes that struggle over time to stand up to audit and validation. The volatility in the remarketing and recycling markets, particularly as commodity markets dry up or stall, make the patchwork service provider suspect to sustainability, and ultimately introduce additional risk versus mitigating the risk desired at the front end of a contracted relationship.

Of course, due diligence is essential when considering a full service supply chain investment recovery and recycling service provider. That should be the only tough part when considering or improving eWaste or eScrap processing practices or programs. The easy part comes when a program includes simple access to aggregation facilities (e.g., drop boxes located at garages or other easy access locations), when logistics are completely transparent and simplified at the lowest cost, and inventory tracking and accounting are automated and highly dynamic sources of real time business intelligence.

The next simple step is obtaining the mindshare of operational people who can be incentivized around the possibility of investment recovery sharing or risk mitigation bonuses. Examples of multimillion dollar fines penalizing shoddy practices are now becoming case law, and energizing everyone to mitigate these circumstances is inexpensive and simple to manage with a full service processing capability in place.

The final step is to have a qualified and capable processing and remarketing vendor work as an advocate to reintroduce raw materials into supply chains for the manufacture of OEM commodity products and/or components, including high grade plastics. As the regionalized nature of the processing industry continues to evolve away from its patchwork structure to those investing in national or international ability to support operations, green ethics, and accountability, complex green initiatives become easier to measure and manage at all levels.

About the Authors

Mark Stratton is a 24-year veteran of the telecom and data industries. He leads the investment recovery and data risk mitigation practice for Red River Solutions.

Terri L. Pettit is a 30-year veteran of supporting the challenges of OSP operations as an equipment and professional services provider.

For more information, visit www.redriversolutions.com or call 866.756.3227.

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