Cox Recycling on McKee Road now offers a place to recycle electronic waste.
With Christmas behind us, many folks are wondering what to do with their old electronics.
There’s a new business not far out of town that accepts them for recycling and they will even pay for some items.
Cox Recycling, on Highway 89 just out of South Irvine, opened for business in October.
Lucas Cox, owner, said his business specializes in electronic scrap.
He accepts computers, laptops, cell phones, printers, fax machines, televisions, video games, “pretty much anything with a plug on it.”
Cox pays for some things like PC’s and wire, but the rest is just for disposal because the value is so low.
He also takes appliances, batteries, motors, wheels and more.
Cox has recently taken on some commercial recycling jobs. When E.W. James went out of business in Richmond, Cox purchased the electronic waste, which led to him later purchasing that of the E.W. James store in Elizabethtown.
He says he spent a week there disassembling 70 coolers. If coolers, freezers, etc. are old, they get torn down for the metals. Sometimes electric motors, refrigerator controllers and robotic equipment can be recovered for repurposing.
Cox first began recycling as a hobby while still a college student.
“I piddled with it to start with, until I got about all my schooling done,” he said. “Then I wanted to open my own business.”
He has a bachelor’s degree in Computer-aided Drafting and Design, and needs only four classes in Industrial Technology to have a Bachelor’s Degree in that. He also has an Associate’s Degree in Quality Control.
Cox said he worked part-time for Sherwin Williams for about four years, which helped him learn what’s inside a lot of the equipment and who buys it.
“The scrap business is always good, but when the housing industry collapsed and a lot of businesses went under, it picked up even more,” he said.
“Most electronics have minute amounts of gold, silver, and a variety of other precious metals,” Cox said. The amount is so small that he has to tear down a lot of computers to make anything. Right now, he pays about 20 cents a pound for a PC, but prices fluctuate.
Still, almost 100 percent of a tower computer is recyclable, he said, including the plastics and common metals. Most of the material in monitors is recyclable as well.
All personal information on computer hard drives can be certified destroyed, which protects from identity theft and other problems.
Cox said his family helps out some with his business, and he hopes to hire a few people eventually.
The business is open on Wednesday’s from about 8:30 a.m. to dark and on other days when “the gate is open.”
He’s building a 40-foot by 60-foot building for storage and office space, and in a couple of months he hopes to be open a few more days a week.
His business is regulated by loce police, who can come in at any time to monitor for stolen items. Cox said he is required to make copies of the seller’s identification and have them sign a release form.
Cox is in the process of getting into a program that will provide him with a “no-buy list” of prosecuted or known thieves.
“I don’t want to have anything to do with that,” he said.
Lucas’s parents are Sam and Richelle Cox. His grandparents are Lucian and Anna Cox, and Billy Isaacs.
Located at 485 McKee Rd, Cox Recycling can be reached at 606-599-7793.