Schaefer Enterprises, Inc

Schaefer Enterprises owns and operates an electronic recycling business in Greeley, CO! We are dedicated to helping clean up our environment so that our future will be healthier and safer!Schaefer Enterprises has been in Greeley since 1952. We became incorporated as a 5013c agency in 1953 and have been providing services for over half a century to people with developmental disabilities by assisting them to become integrated into their community. Although our services have changed throughout the past 60 years, our philosophy has remained the same – to provide the best quality services that we can to people with developmental disABILITIES.

SEI's Recycling And Baling Center:E-Cycling - The Concept, Development & Growth

In 2006, Schaefer Enterprises, Inc. (www.schaeferenterprises.com) saw an opportunity to help keep our environment and landfills clean while providing jobs to people with disABILITIES. Our dream was realized when we opened an electronic recycling business in Greeley, serving Weld and Larimer Counties.Our foresight back in 2006 was right on the money and now organizations and businesses such as ours are popping up all over the state. Their primary goal, like ours, is to help residents find a safe solution for destroying old electronics AND to help people with disABILITIES find gainful employment.

While these new businesses have been rushing to open so they can help their communities comply with the new Colorado E-Waste Law that went into effect on July 1, 2013, Schaefer has spent this past year moving our well-established electronic recycling program into a separate building in the Greeley community because we no longer had the space at our plant to store and recycle all of the electronics we were receiving on a daily basis!

When funding cuts began six years ago, we had the foresight to begin several new businesses. The reason for this was two-fold. First, we wanted to use the income to continue to provide quality services to the people that we serve and secondly, the new businesses were established to provide gainful employment to those same individuals while adding a valuable service to Greeley and Weld County.

Why Recycle Your Old Electronic Equipment?

• Recycle valuable metals and components that can be used again in other manufacturing processes
• Keep the hazardous chemicals used to make electronic equipment such as mercury, barium and cadmium from polluting the water and air resources.
• Help stop the fastest growing hazardous waste (electronic waste) from threatening human health and the environment.
• It helps to save space in landfills and as you know this is a huge problem right now.

Worried About Your Data?

You don’t need to be! Our consumers remove the hard drive from desktops, tablets, or laptops. We destroy each hard drive one at a time. Our workers with disABILITIES use an old fashioned drill bolted on to a table and drill holes from one side to the other. Typically, the hard drive has five to six holes drilled into it before it goes through quality assurance processes to ensure the job was done correctly. By drilling holes in this manner, you can be 100% sure that your data is destroyed. Our consumers enjoy this part of the recycling process and they work hard to ensure that the job is done correctly each and every time.

Additionally, every employee at Schaefer & The Recycling/Baling Center is bonded and specific policies and procedures are in place that any electronics brought into the building can not be taken out or turned on under any circumstances. Once we have the electronics, they must stay in the building and in accordance with rules and regulations they are disassembled within 30 days.

SEI’s Recycling and Baling Center

Located on 8th Ave. in Greeley, Colorado has been up and running since July 1, 2012. The amount of electronics that we have recycled during this past year is up to 2 million pounds. On an average day, we receive and collect electronics from at least 25 new or return customers. If customers can’t come to us, we will go and pick up their electronics. Currently, we complete at least 4 to 5 pick-ups a day.But most importantly, in accordance with our mission and purpose, we were able to employ 25 people in our recycling plant. These employees are a mix of people with and without disabilities. They work side by side to make sure that the Recycling and Baling Center is able to disassemble and process all of the electronics received on a daily basis.

Schaefer is dedicated to teaching our staff and the people we serve the importance of recycling and how this helps to clean up our environment. Everything that is brought to us for recycling is disassembled down to the smallest piece. All of the raw materials are then sent to certified recycling plants to be further broken down and used in the manufacturing of new electronic products. Schaefer walks the talk when it comes to cleaning up our environment.

OTHER SERVICES

Baling Center

In addition to recycling electronics at the Center, we also bale shredded paper and cardboard. Bring your Cardboard to us for free and we will make sure it is recycled safely.One of the other businesses we operate is a mobile shredding company – Express Shredding Solutions. Our mobile truck shreds the paper to 5/8th of an inch or less and then it is mixed with other shredded paper from all of our other customers, which helps maintain the confidentiality of your shredded documents. Our workers then combine it all together and bale the paper. Once we bale the shredded paper, we send it to a paper mill where it’s turned back into paper again. The recycled paper is shipped out into society once more in the shape of lower-quality paper. Some products, like cardboard and toilet tissue, are now mostly made from recycled recycled paper, which is another sign of our commitment to cleaning up our environment.