Recycling software: The wanted list

Keeping track of what is purchased, what is in inventory and what is being shipped out has long been a priority task for the customized software used by recycling facilities operators.

That task remains a key priority for recycling software users, but it has been joined by at least two other critical ones as executives and managers make greater demands on their custom software: 1) the ability of recyclers to share accurate information quickly with sellers and buyers and 2) ensuring their purchasing and handling operations are in compliance with any number of laws or regulations tied to their businesses.

Software vendors have updated existing features and introduced new ones to meet this growing set of requests in an effort to retain and grow their market share in a competitive field.

Access aplenty

Workplace restrictions caused by efforts to halt the spread of the COVID-19 virus provided a critical example of why remote access to a company’s stored information can be an enormous safety and productivity factor.

Increasingly, vendors and recyclers say, this information flow must include not only employees within a recycling organization but also suppliers of scrap materials, freight companies and buyers of processed scrap.

Understanding inventory positions now extends beyond internal organizational communication, Jimmy Martin, CEO and co-founder of Ireland-based AMCS, told Recycling Today for a 2019 article.

“Real-time transparency into what’s on the ground and what’s in your overall system can deliver real advantages on the sell side of recycling operations,” Martin said. “It allows you to capitalize on market opportunities.”

Quick access to that information is important, Martin added. “There is also an increasing advantage for operators that are digitally enabled. Streamlining the interaction between you and your customers and you and your consumers is huge. We’re doing that every day. It’s a strategic area of investment for us.”

United States-based Shared Logic says it has created apps that allow employees of scrap processing customers to “easily import images to substantiate upgrades or adjustments.”

Shared Logic customers like scrap firm Padnos say this adds to their transparency with customers, according to a 2020 promotional piece for Shared Logic prepared by Recycling Today.

21^st Century Programming, also based in the United States, says its ROM Infinite Dispatch feature provides management and monitoring of dispatches, drivers, equipment and customer activity that enables “instantaneous communications between dispatchers, drivers and customers.”

As described by the company in a September 2020 announcement, “The underlying hybrid-cloud platform [of ROM Infinite Dispatch] requires zero management by customers and provides instant cloud backup and synchronization, end-to-end encryption, optional on-premises servers that can keep things going when the internet goes down and more.”

Complicated compliance

As prices for metals have soared during upcycles in the past 20 years, law enforcement agencies have passed laws designed to identify metal thieves and their stolen property at the scale house.

Such laws—along with fraud schemes created to undermine deposit-return schemes for some recyclable packaging—have created an additional set of responsibilities to be addressed by software vendors.

Cameras, scanners and data collection processes have joined inventory tracking and accurate pricing as priorities for the custom software used by recycling firms.

A session at the ISRI2021 online convention, hosted by the Washington-based Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) focused on the responses undertaken by law enforcement agencies, recyclers and their vendors regarding a recent rash of catalytic converter thefts.

The anecdotes and statistics on converter theft, as well as subsequent news items on more states passing anti-converter theft laws, seem to demonstrate recycles can expect more anti-theft compliance measures in their future.

United States-based ScrapRight says it has encoded “built-in rules” within its software that “kick in when a material has compliance requirements assigned to it. Visual cues show on the screen when a ticket is either in or out of compliance,” according to the firm

In May 2020, as COVID-19 began affecting the workplace, ScrapRight modified its seller identification system to “promote contactless ID scanning for retail scrap transactions” via a new feature available through the company’s current app.

As with converter theft, the California Redemption Value (CRV) system for recyclable cans and bottles in that state has made headlines for the wrong reasons in 2021, with six people being arrested in April of this year for alleged involvement in a fraud scheme involving out-of-state containers brought to California for redemption.

One United States-based software vendor proposed to Recycling Today in 2020 that enhancements to the customized software used by recyclers can help provide a solution.

CEO Stacy Duty of True Cloud ERP said at that time, “Our company is developing a cloud ERP [enterprise resource planning] solution that would allow the entire state to use one cloud solution that would allow every California resident that recycles to track their recycling and participate in rewards programs adding to the fun of recycling.”

The system envisioned by TrueCloud “allows for electronic payments and would allow the state to begin tracking where the containers are coming from while helping the recycling centers remain in full compliance.” Adds Duty, “Using this solution would allow for bag dropoff like [neighboring state] Oregon has, so families would no longer need to stand in long lines. It allows for electronic payments and would allow the state to begin tracking where the containers are coming from while helping the recycling centers remain in full compliance.”

Whether addressing more efficient supply chain communication or more thorough compliance, customized recycling software vendors are poised to continue to devise solutions to the industry’s ever-changing set of challenges.