February 11, 2009

Purdue Surplus and Storage works to help environment, save money

The sale of used university merchandise to the public generates revenue and reduces the amount of material going to landfills, says Mike Wilkins, director of Materials Management and Distribution.

"We're the last set of eyes on all of this stuff, computer hard drives and everything," he says. "We are a security net. We have found isotopes and other hazardous materials left in surplus equipment and prevented them from going to a landfill. If those kinds of things go to the landfill, it would be a severe blemish on the university. We provide a buffer to keep that from happening."

They also prevented, during the 2007-08 academic year, 3,548 pounds of television sets, 94,187 pounds of computer monitors and 76,760 pounds of miscellaneous equipment such as computers and printers from going to landfills. A total of 174,495 pounds of equipment was recycled in 2007-08, the last for which statistics are available.

All university equipment — from computers, printers, scanners and fax machines to office furniture, including desks, chairs, sofas, file cabinets and lights, as well as vehicles and bicycles — must be disposed of through the warehousing and disposal program.

Items that are in fair or good condition are made available to other Purdue departments, says Mark Schock, supervisor of University Warehouse and Surplus. If no other department wants the items, they are sold to the public at the warehouse, at 3601 Sagamore Parkway, Suite K, in the INOK building. Much of what is not sold is recycled.

The store has four full-time employees and two part-time student employees. The sale floor is open to the public noon to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

"We are probably reselling as much or more than what is sent for recycling," Schock says. "Everything from lost and found comes through here, too. Anything a small city has we have -- things from the police, fire department and power plant. We get a lot of bicycles.

"We get a lot of stuff from people that don't think it has value and we will get equipment sold."

A fire truck and a contrabass clarinet are among the items Surplus and Storage have sold for quite a bit of money.

"There's an economic and financial side to why we're here," Wilkins says. "The fire department had a truck to dispose of. They were going to sell it at auction. I said, 'How about selling it on eBay?' We put it on auto eBay. At auction they would have gotten $8,000 for it. We sold it on eBay for $12,000. A small city in Kentucky bought it. They had no fire truck. It was a win-win situation for the university and that city.

"The band had a contrabass instrument that they were finished with. They were willing to take $25 just to get rid of it. We sold it on eBay for $3,300. We returned 90 percent of that to the band."

Most of the money generated from sales to the public, about 70 percent, goes back to the department where the equipment originated.

"We send back almost $200,000 a year to each department," Wilkins says.

Another source of revenue is selling items such as computer hard drives, batteries and wire cords to businesses that recycle them.

"We strip down computers and take the hard drives and other parts of the equipment," Schock says. "We cut the cords off because we can get 70 cents to $1.10 a pound for cords. We get 10 cents a pound for batteries. We take the computer cards out to recycle the gold, silver and copper. The value is in the cards."

The sale of refurbished computer, flat screen and VGA monitors enabled Warehouse and Surplus to return more than $197,000 directly back to owning departments' accounts in 2007-08.

Electronic and computer material that is not sold or recycled is sent to a company in Chicago where it is ground up and destroyed.

"It's very important when we send e-waste out so that it be properly handled and disposed of and not shipped overseas," Schock says.

Writer: Greg McClure, (765) 494-9394, gmcclure@purdue.edu

Sources:   Mike Wilkins, (765) 494-7097, smwilkins@purdue.edu

Mark Schock, (765) 742-7386, maschock@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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