Schupan Electronics Recycling to use device trackers

Michigan-based Schupan Electronics Recycling, a division of Schupan & Sons Inc., began deploying the Green Tracking Service to verify proper downstream recycling of the end-of-life electronics it handles.

Schupan & Sons is a third-generation, family-owned company with 15 facilities throughout Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.

Green Tracking Service provides small trackers that adhere to electronics. The trackers report on their hosts’ locations once daily for up to a year, sending an alert when they are removed from or when they enter a geographic area of concern, according to a press release from Schupan.

“It is no longer good enough to only audit downstream vendor’s paper trails for asset disposition. Anybody can do that, but we are not ‘anybody’,” says Cory Pyscher, vice president and general manager of Schupan Electronics Recycling. “Our clientele demands the highest level of environmental compliance along with full transparency, and that is exactly what we deliver.”

Pyscher says Schupan Electronics Recycling services “some of the biggest household names in the world.” He adds that these companies use Schupan’s services “because they know that we go above and beyond to deliver the best service in the industry. We are not your stereotypical electronics recycler—we are Schupan.”

Schupan Electronics Recycling is certified to the Responsible Recycling Practices Standard and to the Recycling Industry Operating Standard (R2/RIOS). The company says the tracking service helps reduce risk while maintaining its reputation as a transparent and ethical recycler and ensuring certification requirements are met.

The Basel Action Network, Seattle, the nongovernmental organization behind the e-Stewards Standard for electronics recyclers, recently announced the availability of its EarthEye technology. EarthEye is designed to offer real-time logistics monitoring to government agencies and businesses concerned about the possibility of data-security breaches arising from data theft from discarded equipment; unauthorized exports to substandard recycling operations in developing countries; and brand damage from lack of accountability and downstream due diligence. EarthEye in effect provides a downstream performance audit every 24 hours, BAN says.

ERI, headquartered in Fresno, California, was the first electronics recycling company to adopt Earth Eye.