Shelves of maybe-working kit
When WEEE comes in, your sorters pull out the items that look reusable: a nearly new microwave, laptops in good condition, monitors, power tools. They go on a set of shelves at the back of the warehouse, with a sticky note if you are lucky. The idea is that someone will test them, clean them and sell them.
Months later the shelves are full. Nobody knows which items have been tested, which passed, or which were already sold and are waiting for collection. Some laptops still need data wiping. A few items have been there so long they are now worth less than the time it would take to list them.
Meanwhile the person who does the listings spends each afternoon photographing items one at a time and typing descriptions into a marketplace, copying model numbers off the back of the case.
Why reuse stock stalls
Reuse is a small retail business inside a recycling business, and it rarely gets the systems a retail business would.
- Items are set aside at sorting without a record.
- Test results are written on labels or not recorded.
- Data-bearing items need wiping before sale, and their status is unclear.
- Listings are created one at a time, by hand, for each channel.
- Shelf locations are not recorded, so finding a sold item takes time.
What can be resold, and any testing or safety checks required, are for your business and its advisers to decide. We deal with tracking and listing.
What stalled reuse stock costs
Items that wait too long lose value. Older models become harder to sell, and some end up back in the recycling stream after taking shelf space for months.
Staff time is spent searching shelves, retesting items because the result was not recorded, and typing listings. Buyers who are told an item is available and then find it cannot be found do not come back.
Reuse is also often a selling point with your commercial customers. If you cannot show what was reused from their collections, you lose part of the story they want to tell their own stakeholders.
How we build a reuse pipeline
What we build gives each reusable item a record from the moment it is set aside.
- At sorting, the item is given a label with a code and a record: category, make, model, and the customer collection it came from.
- Testing and grading are recorded on a tablet against the code: pass, fail, grade and notes. Data-bearing items are linked to the data wiping record and cannot be listed until wiped.
- Items are photographed on a simple bench setup, with photos attached to the record.
- Shelf location is recorded by scanning the item and the shelf.
- Listings are created from the record for your channels, such as your own website, eBay or a trade buyer list, using descriptions generated from the make, model, grade and notes, which a person checks.
- Sold items show their shelf location for picking. Items waiting past an age you set are flagged for a price cut, a trade sale or recycling.
| Item status | Next step |
|---|---|
| Set aside | Test and grade |
| Tested, passed | Wipe if needed, photograph |
| Ready | Listed on your channels |
| Sold | Pick from recorded shelf |
| Waiting too long | Reprice, trade sale or recycle |
The reuse shelves after the change
Each item on the shelves has a label and a record. The reuse technician opens today's list: items set aside yesterday, waiting for testing. She tests and grades them, photographs the ones that passed, and the listings are drafted from the records. She checks the descriptions and publishes them.
A laptop sells on Tuesday. The picker scans its code, sees shelf B3, and it is packed within minutes. At the end of the month, the report shows what was reused from each customer's collection.
Is reuse stock piling up?
- Reusable items are set aside without a record.
- Test results are not recorded, so items are retested.
- Listings are typed by hand one at a time.
- Sold items take time to find on the shelves.
- Items sit for months before anyone decides what to do with them.