Live from the floor at E-Scrap: The Longevity Conference in New Orleans, Uriah Kiser talks with Darrell Fleming-Kendall, Executive Director of the Global ITAD Alliance.
Darrell explains the Alliance’s mission to elevate awareness of the ITAD industry beyond industry conferences — especially with the general public and legislators — and the shift from scrap recycling to service-first brand and data protection. He covers growth from the ITAD Summit network, collaboration over competition, and the policy angles around circularity, critical minerals, and national security.
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Transcript of episode 11: The Resource Recycling Podcast
Host: Uriah Kiser, Resource Recycling | Guest: Darrell Fleming-Kendall, Global ITAD Alliance
Uriah: Hello everyone, and welcome back to this edition of the Resource Recycling Podcast, on the floor of E-Scrap: The Longevity Conference here in New Orleans. Darrell Kendall joins us now. He’s from the Global ITAD Alliance. There are a lot of people at this conference, and they’re all talking about circularity, ITAD, what have you, but we’re all talking to each other. Your group is about expanding these walls and getting the message out to people who may not be talking about it, especially the legislators who need to hear more about what we’re doing here. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you for coming on.
Darrell: First of all, thanks for having me. I’m super excited to be at E-Scrap in this capacity. I think this is my 12th or 13th E-Scrap. It’s always fun to come back and be part of this show, and watching it evolve has been a lot of fun. Maite and her team have done a really great job.
But to your point, we come to conferences like this, and we put on our own conferences: the ITAD Summit, ITAD Europe and Mobile Disrupt. We recognize that at a conference, it’s the industry talking to the industry, and we’re doing a lot of education. We do 26 sessions at our event, and there are probably a similar number here, one of which was ours, and we’re really grateful to have had that opportunity.
But a lot goes on outside the industry that influences what we do. Our goal with the Global ITAD Alliance is really to elevate awareness of the ITAD industry. We point to the fact that any person who has made an electronic transaction of any sort is protected somewhere, at some point, by an ITAD, and has no idea what ITAD is or that it even exists. Our goal is to change that, and to change the way we talk about it so it resonates with people. So people understand what happens to their electronic devices when they’re done with them, and what happens to the devices at their bank, their hospital, their schools. All of that matters, and people just have no idea.
Uriah: And your association is approaching its one-year anniversary. We’ll talk about that. But where was the line that was crossed, so that now, as you said, everyone should know about ITAD? The devices we use are ubiquitous. They’re everywhere we go. What was that line?
Darrell: I think there was a point at which we went, as an industry, from being recyclers in the true sense of the word, collecting material, sorting it, dismantling it, sending the metals to one place and the plastics to another, and evolved into a service-first industry. That’s where the line of demarcation is. That’s where we went from, “Hey, let me take care of that scrap or waste for you,” to, “Let me protect your brand. Let me handle your data. Let me ensure that the information entrusted to us as your partner is handled in a way that supports your brand and doesn’t expose it to liability.”
That’s where I think the industry changed and went in a different direction. Probably five or six years ago is when that line began. And organizations like e-Stewards and R2 and the certification programs had an influence on that. That shift is really the line.
Uriah: As you approach your one-year anniversary, how are you growing the organization?
Darrell: The big thing for us is that with the ITAD Summit, we’d curated a nice network of people who are either ITADs themselves or support the ITAD industry. The last ITAD Summit had 2,200 people at the Bellagio and 146 vendors in the exhibit hall. We’d curated a community that recognized the value of getting together, having the conversation and moving it forward. We started to notice it was really the annual meeting of the industry, and the conversation would change each year. So we relied on that as a primary driver of growth. The people who have been part of our community and have come to trust us as carriers of information have helped drive the growth in this first year.
We’re also very lucky to have people like John Shegerian and Kevin Dillon from ERI, Todd Zegers from CXtec, and Gary Diamond from Quantum. Some of the real pillars of the industry, and I’m going to forget some of them. I’m sure I’ll get a comment on LinkedIn: “Hey, thanks for forgetting me in the shout-out.” But Eric Levine is here from Iron Mountain, and Kelly Hess from CompuCycle. All of these people recognize the value of putting collaboration over competition, especially in an era when our industry is going through a massive boom. We don’t need to cannibalize each other’s piece of the pie when the pie is getting bigger. Everybody’s piece will get bigger if we work together, collaborate and each take on our own role in making the industry stronger and better.
Uriah: There’s so much collaboration happening on the industry side. But on the policy side, you’re trying to reach legislators. It’s a patchwork of policy across the U.S. There’s no federal policy on this.
Darrell: No.
Uriah: As you talk to those legislators, what are you trying to make them understand?
Darrell: As the name suggests, we’re a global organization. We have a sub-chapter in Europe, and we’re developing ones for Australia and Southeast and South Asia, including India. Regional subgroups that can handle issues as they come up in those parts of the world.
But one thing we’re really emphasizing is that ITAD as an industry, and secondary lifecycle management of electronics more broadly, has an interesting role for the next decade or so, as I see it. One is economic. Manufacturers have been aggressively patting themselves on the back for several years about developing the circular economy, forgetting that the circle part of it comes courtesy of ITADs and secondary lifecycle management companies like the ones here at E-Scrap. So there’s an economic driver. There’s a material sustainability driver in that circularity. And interestingly, because of critical minerals, we’ve been thrust into a national security conversation.
So our goal is talking to legislators and regulators, who by and large are just looking to get educated and better understand the implications of the rules they’re making. Half the time, somebody goes into their office and says, “We need to make a rule or a law about this,” and they say, “Yeah, that’s a good idea,” and have no idea what the secondary effects are.
Uriah: Because they’re still trying to get their heads around data centers and what they all mean.
Darrell: 100 percent. Interestingly, I went to an AI conference at one of the congressional office buildings three weeks ago. It was the one week Congress was actually in session.
Uriah: Nice. When they were actually doing their job. You could get a cheeseburger for showing up in D.C. when they’re in session.
Darrell: You don’t get a hotel room, though. That was the problem. I waited until the last minute and ended up at a Red Roof Inn way out in Gaithersburg.
But it was interesting, because I think 12 or 15 representatives or senators came and talked to us. To hear their perspectives on AI and data centers, some of the misinformation, some of the lack of understanding. And this was an AI crowd, the forward side of AI development. There were three of us who went together, and we were the only people there on the reverse side saying, “Hey, while we’re talking about this, we should be thinking about what happens when the equipment reaches its end of life.”
Hearing the legislators talk about it, I walked away and the first thing I put on LinkedIn was, “Yo, as an industry, we have a lot of work to do.” There’s a complete void in understanding about what happens to these data centers once technology makes the current equipment obsolete or it reaches its end of life.
A lot of it is finding the people who are sympathetic and willing to learn, who aren’t giving in to scare tactics like, “Oh, these data centers are going to take over your community and eat up your river,” but are willing to understand how we operate a modernizing, AI-driven civilization. I think it’s fair to say we’re not going to go in reverse anytime soon. So how do we do that effectively, in a way that shepherds the environment and our world into my child’s future?
Uriah: Now, you brought your kid with you here.
Darrell: I did bring my kid. He’s accidentally become the mascot of E-Scrap, I think.
Uriah: He’s very popular. He knows everybody.
Darrell: Like I said, I’ve been coming for 13 years, and I know a few people here. But I walk through the halls now and everybody’s like, “Hi, Austin. Hi, Austin. Hi, Austin.” Apparently you have to be nine to get people to know your name around here.
Uriah: That’s hilarious. How can people follow along and get more information? Drop all the socials and websites so we make sure we get them in the description.
Darrell: We’ve got a page on LinkedIn, Global ITAD Alliance. Our website is globalitad.org, and my email is dk@globalitad.org. We put out a public newsletter once a month highlighting some of the things our members are doing and some of the things we’re seeing. I include a message from the executive director, just a thought piece. One of the last ones was about national security, and the implications of economic versus security interests and how we reconcile that as an industry. That got a lot of response, actually. It was interesting to see how many people read it, because I don’t think there’s been a lot of conversation about how we balance those priorities. What’s good for the wallet is not always good for national security, and vice versa. I’d encourage folks to hop on our website and register for that newsletter.
Uriah: Keep tabs on everything happening in the industry. This has been a lot of fun. Thanks for coming on.
Darrell: I appreciate you guys. I get all of your publications in the mailbox and read them all regularly.
Uriah: And we’re not paying him to say that.
Darrell: It’s not a plug. It’s quality material, so it’s great to participate in your podcast and be involved. I appreciate everything you guys do.
Uriah: Thank you. If you want more conversations like this, please like this video, share it, and hit that bell notification and subscribe. Listen wherever you get your podcasts, because we’re going to be talking about this in the months to come. And we’re still going here in New Orleans, so we’ll keep bringing you more from E-Scrap: The Longevity Conference. I’m Uriah Kiser, and we’ll see you on the next Resource Recycling Podcast.
