NEW SERVICE SPOTLIGHT: E-Waste Recycling/Handling By USMe

USMe Electronic Assets Recycling, a new division of Universal Scrap Metals of Chicago, provides recycling, remarketing, and shredding programs for computers and other electronic equipment, supported by a detailed and comprehensive real time data reporting system.

While the actual shredding of electronic equipment has become almost a commodity service, USMe adds value by providing those responsible for overseeing equipment destruction with proof that all federal, state, and local electronic waste disposal laws have been followed, helping to shield the consigner from liability.

Assurance comes from 24/7, real-time, Internet information that tells customers:

  • Precisely where in the disposition process each piece of all their consigned equipment is
  • What is happening to every piece
  • Where each piece ended up and when
  • All information can be viewed electronically, in reporting formats matched to the customer’s specifications.

Reports can be downloaded as PDFs or as Excel files. When disposition is complete, an authorized Certificate of Destruction is issued. There are no additional charges for the reporting service.

The ability to provide this level of detailed information is made possible by barcoding and tracking system, executed at whatever level the customer specifies.

Customers can elect to have each individual piece of equipment tracked from receipt to final disposition; or they can ask that multiple units be treated as a group. In response, USMe either barcodes each piece of equipment or, in the case of a group designation, the pallet on which the equipment arrived. At each step in the disposition process, the barcodes are scanned and simultaneously uploaded into USMe’s proprietary Kaleidoscope software, creating real-time data. Customers are given access to their information, protected by username and password.

In this way, USMe monitors each element of its recycling service, which has been designed to meet both customers’ e-waste disposal needs and budgets while adhering to federal, state, and local laws for proper handling of electronic products.

Customers may also find value in USMe’s remarketing service, which shepherds products back to useful second lives. USMe audits each item designated for remarking to verify functionality and confirm marketplace appeal. Data on hard drives of viable equipment is totally removed through USMe’s proprietary three-step Purge™ process. Equipment is then offered to a nationwide network of resellers. Revenue is shared with customers at predetermined ratios.

Equipment not designated for remarketing, or found to be without remarketing value, is dismantled, shredded, and collected by commodity classes (ferrous and non-ferrous metals, plastic, glass) then sent to downstream vendors for final conversion to raw material status. Nothing is sent to a landfill or shipped overseas.