Dive Brief:
- A grant from Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality is enabling Comprenew to pile on 10 new drop off sites for e-waste. When open, the new sites will mean the firm has a total of 29 sites for such collections across the state.
- Begun three decades ago as an IBM mainframe refurbishing company, Comprenew later became a nonprofit electronic waste recycler. Volunteers for the firm help handle e-waste at the company’s Grand Rapids processing center.
- Comprenew recycles about 15,000 pounds of wiring each month. The company’s employees remove data from old computers, refurbishing the machines for re-use.
Dive Insight:
A mainframe refurbishing company that became an e-waste recycler and is still growing is a reflection of the increasing viability of the recycling industry. It also demonstrates that people want to recycle if given convenient opportunities to do so.