The U.S. Congress is finally catching on to what E-Structors company executives have known for almost a decade: that recycling electronic devices is not only good for the environment, it’s an entrepreneurial opportunity for someone who can do the job — and do it right.
Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.) toured E-Structors at its Elkridge headquarters in July, right after introducing the Electronic Device Recycling Research and Development Act, legislation that will create competitive research grants for reducing the environmental impact of discarded electronic devices.
Sarbanes said recycling waste is a “win-win for our economy and our environment,” plus, he said, it makes U.S. companies “less dependent on foreign suppliers of minerals and other materials.”
Sarbanes and his congressional cohorts are just putting into legalese the tenets on which entrepreneur Mike Keough founded E-Structors, an electronics recycling company that securely destructs electronics, computers and documents for both the public and private sectors.
A pioneer when he began E-Structors in 2003, Keough now acknowledges that his industry has become very competitive. But, he says, it’s still a new field. He estimates there are perhaps a dozen bona fide electronics recycling companies across the country — and many more that bill themselves as the genuine article but fall far short in their actual process.
