When I think of 3R Technology, I think about an organization that is committed to its customers. I’m pleased to share an article from Glen Gaidos, 3R’s founder and CEO. Below he shares his perspectives about his business, beliefs, and what makes 3R so special. Enjoy!

3R Technology has really been a solution provider from its inception. I know it sounds routine to say that, but we’ve always been about solving problems for our customers. At first, it was just finding an environmentally safe way to pick up and process e-waste material at a time when the awareness around the disposition of e-waste wasn’t widespread. Customers just knew they needed to get rid of the old equipment, especially after it had been piled up somewhere for a long time. I remember we would pick up old dusty CRTs, for example, that had sat in storage for 10 years or more. No one knew what to do with the stuff.

We’ve been doing this since 2003, so we’ve evolved substantially, and so have our customers. Now, the conversation is centered more significantly on data destruction and security, certified recycling, and value recovery. We were pretty much the first ones in this geographic area to recognize that value recovery was a significant driver for the industry, and something we could share back with our customers. Thus, the ITAD focus for us. We see ourselves as partners, helping to architect their ITAD program, and perhaps help answer some questions they weren’t even thinking of asking, but are important for the health of their organization.

Right now, we have just shy of 40,000 square feet across three locations, including a main processing facility, two brick and mortar stores, and a secure storage site. We’re very community focused, so even though our brick and mortar stores don’t really do that much to keep our boat afloat, we love reuse, and being able to constantly engage with customers on the front line of supporting technology. It also allows us to have more hours for receiving consumer drop-offs, especially on the weekends, and with the help of some partner sites, we divert a lot of e-waste material from the community to reuse and proper recycling rather than landfill.

We can accept almost anything with a circuit board or a wire, as we like to say, and we work with many regional large generators of material to provide certified end-of-life recycling. Along with that, we have robust proprietary destruction and data destruction capabilities. We own 4 shredders, 2 mobile, and 2 fixed, that allow us to shred hard drives down to 1”, SSDs down to 3/16” of an inch, and most small e-waste items.

I got into e-waste recycling and ITAD through an IT services company I founded and owned through the early 2000’s. We had to find ways to reuse or recycle a lot of hardware to support our clients, and that sparked the idea to investigate what it would take to start a recycling operation on its own. I intuited that if my company and clients were struggling to find solutions, probably a lot of other companies were as well.

The apple didn’t fall far from the tree. Both my parents grew up in the Great Depression and carried with them a powerful respect for making the most of anything that they owned, as they came from a background where they had so few possessions of any kind. I saw them recycle, upcycle, and repair most everything they owned or consumed.

My dad could pretty much fix almost anything, and my mom was one of those people who could make or mend most items of clothing. I don’t know too many people like that nowadays. Our culture is built too much around disposability. Their values definitely carried on to me, as well as my other siblings. As I’ve seen and continue to see the terrible amount of waste in our society at all levels, and I feel compelled to address it in the ways that I’m empowered to do so.

I think 3R Technology is special because of the people we have. I know a lot of people can say this, but our team really cares about what we do, our clients, the environment, and the ethic of living sensibly.

I see it every day in how we make decisions, and how we take the practice home with us. I hear lots of great stories all the time how someone here sees an opportunity to do better in their personal life or educate someone on the values of reuse and recycling.

We also focus with the make IT count program and our match-making efforts on socially worthy causes. Refurbished technology really can change lives, and we have a tremendous wealth of it here in the US, particularly in the high tech centers that we can share with those that are less advantaged. We love hearing all the success stories from the non-profits we partner with.
Again, we love to solve problems for our customers, too, so hearing how much we are able to help them manage the constant outflow of outmoded technology is also very gratifying for us.

Recycling and reuse is always evolving, so we have to as well. Innovation is key. We’re constantly working with our vendors to improve our internal systems for managing and processing assets. We’re also pivoting towards doing more e-commerce for our clients. There’s no point in storing surplus inventory, assets, or manufacturing excess for very long. It’s a better practice to return it to the marketplace as soon as it’s practical. It saves everyone in the long run, including the environment.

I’m excited to see what the future holds, but also concerned as well. I’m hoping that more manufacturers, enterprise companies, governmental agencies, and end users as well realize the importance of preserving our natural resources that are contained temporarily in the technology we utilize. If we don’t do a good job managing the reuse and recycling of technology, the impact on the environment will just become more and more of an issue. It’s not just the natural resources involved in making the products, too. If we continue to produce more and more technology at a rapid pace without any consideration to lengthening its lifespan, the carbon aspect is also enormous. Computing, and electronic technology in general is only becoming more pervasive and ubiquitous. We humans need to do a better job. I’m hoping 3R Technology will continue to be an important voice in that dialogue around doing better at reuse and recycling.

I believe ITADCentral will be a great tool and marketing effort to make it easier for customers to do the right thing. That’s one of the biggest challenges with recycling adoption, and it’s no different in the ITAD space. You have to make it as easy as possible for customers. I like the fact that customers have more choice, and can easily compare and book projects. Better solutions means higher adoption.