Tool helps ‘sell the benefits’ of recycling and reuse

A new offering from Makor Solutions allows organizations shipping used electronics to processors to track the environmental upsides of diverting material from disposal.

Makor Solutions, a Minneapolis-based ITAD and e-scrap software provider, released what it calls the Customer Impact Portal to the 100-plus users of its enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. Of those electronics recovery entities, roughly half are in North America.

Announced on Sept. 18, the Customer Impact Portal allows material generators to see the environmental benefits – in terms of greenhouse gas emissions reductions and metals recovery – that come from having e-Stewards- and R2-certified processors recycle or sell their electronics for reuse.

“This is a way to incentivize and educate customers as to why paying for disposing of electronics the right way is the right thing to do,” said Mark Chodos, CEO of Makor Solutions. “If they’re not asking for these numbers, it means they probably don’t know the reasons for doing it the right way, and so this is another way to sell the benefits.”

The Customer Impact Portal estimates the benefits based on the number and type of devices actually processed by the vendor, as well as whether they were recycled or reused.

The recycling benefits calculations are based on data from the Global Impact Calculator from e-Stewards, and the reuse benefits come from data from the Swedish Environmental Institute, Chodos explained.

Five categories covered

In addition to environmental impact, the Customer Impact Portal provides financial, inventory, security and service-level information to material generators that are clients of processors using Makor’s software.

“These five categories encompass the impact areas that we’ve heard from our customers that they want to have the ability to review and to do quarterly or annual reviews for their customers to retain their customer value,” Chodos said. It is being offered as a free enhancement for existing Makor Solutions software users.

Makor started working on the software improvement about six months ago, and the company consulted outside experts for feedback, particularly in the area of environmental impact. One of those experts was Carson Maxted, program manager for the Oregon State Contractor Program for Electronics Recycling (SCP).

“Responsible electronics recycling has a measurable impact on the circular economy and results in meaningful environmental stewardship,” Maxted, who was not paid for his review and feedback, said in a statement provided by Makor Solutions. “Being able to include the additional benefits that reuse and resale activity deliver is in demand, and will bring value to customers in all industries.”

More stories about processors

• DMD Systems Recovery acquires Basket Materials
• Processor settles OSHA violations with reduced fine
• Panelists: Battery rules should be proactive, not reactive