Tucson Event to Collect TVs, Computers

Robin Ingenthron, president of American Retroworks Inc. (ARI), Middlebury, Vt., has announced major progress on the company’s electronic scrap program targeting the United States-Mexico border region.

On January 5, 2008, the company will kick off its “American Retroworks West" partnership with a one-day event to collect televisions and computers. The collection event will take place in cooperation with Tucson Clean and Beautiful.

Material collected at the event will be managed with ARI’s partner, Retroworks de Mexico (RDM). RDM is 50 percent owned by a women’s cooperative established in a former copper mining region in the Sierra Madres.

Two women from the co-op, Dolores Cota and Lydia Barreras, recently returned from an intensive training program in Middlebury at ARI’s Good Point Recycling location. Mariano Huchim and Francisco Arreola also trained in Vermont last year.

The goals of the partnership, according to ARI’s Ingenthron, include:

·        Creating environmentally sound e-scrap management for TVs and computers

·        Making e-scrap recycling more affordable for residents in Mexico and Arizona

·        Promoting reuse and repair of used electronics

·        Raising the bar on ‘fair trade’ practices in the export market

·        Promoting women’s rights and entrepreneurship in Sonora, Mexico

·        Creating jobs for Mexicans in Mexico

Retroworks de Mexico is incorporated as a maquiladora of American Retroworks Inc., meaning any material sent into Mexico is 100 percent owned by, and is the liability of, the American company.

“Our goal is not to bite off more than we can chew,” says Ingenthron. “We have the U.S. operation as a backup, and if there is any activity we are not 100 percent comfortable with in Mexico, we can simply bring that material north of the border.

“At the same time, everyone in the recycling business realizes the talent and good faith available from Mexican employees,” Ingenthron continues. “We pondered whether this venture would be ‘exploiting’ them, and compared that concern with the reality that you cannot find a U.S. recycling plant where [Mexican emigrants] are not aggressively applying for work.

“By giving ownership to the women’s cooperative, we hope to realize a fair and transparent partnership,” Ingenthron remarks. “Grandmothers don’t have a lot of job offers today in Mexico—we think they will make fantastic workplace safety administrators, and can help us to hire the kind of person we need in Mexico. Dolores and Lydia proved to my staff in Middlebury that a Mexican grandmother can be the equal of any employee in the U.S., bar none.”

Vermont staff have also cross-trained in Mexico, he notes. Tito Santiago of Middlebury and Rachael Gosselin of Good Point Recycling will attend the Tucson event on Saturday.

A press release from the City of Tucson is announcing the recycling event to people in that region.

According to Ingenthron, ARI’s Mexico partnership is the 2006 brainchild of a non-profit agency, the Cochise County Learning Area Collaborative of Bisbee, Ariz.