Breaking down computers one gaylord at a time with URT

At NRRA’s February 10th Member Operations Marketing (MOM) meeting, Rick Norton, Market Area Manager from Universal Recycling Technologies, gave a thorough presentation on how they process electronic and universal waste at their Dover, NH facility. NRRA has a long-standing relationship with URT as a solid vendor with a fantastic reputation in the field. They have an 80,000 square foot facility that accepts 4-6 truckloads a day of material and has 40 employees. Rick shared an informative video and commented on the path of computers, TVs, cellphones, batteries, fluorescent lamps, mercury thermostats and more that are inventoried, broken down, and inspected to remove hard drives before they are shredded and separated into more basic materials. After years of sending those materials out to the market, URT decided to invest in fully separating their materials directly so that they could sell to the marketplace.

When gaylords of materials are unloaded from the truck, they tag the weight of the material and remove the shrink wrap from pallets. He noted that if materials are sent in shrink wrap, it takes more time to unpack them and costs additional money, so material in gaylords is easier to unload and the NRRA member gets a better price. Lithium batteries do not like shredders, so it is a priority to remove lithium batteries from the incoming material before they are processed. URT is highly regulated, and processes over 2 million pounds per month of CRT glass in Dover. They work with ecomaine and their glass provides alternative daily cover for ecomaine’s landfill as well as material for road base and gas lines. The plastics they recover are marketed in the US and Canada, as they do not wish to deal with the international markets. They ensure that e-waste doesn’t end up in landfills and that hazardous materials are removed. Their headquarters are in Wisconsin, with other facilities in Texas and Oregon.

It was a delight to have Rick at our monthly member’s meeting and really understand the results of e-cycling!