ReTech was founded in 2015 after founder, Kyle Nelson, saw a recurring issue in schools he attended and visited throughout the years. Stacks of old laptops and desktops in school libraries and supply closets gathering dust and the useful life of the equipment needlessly fading away. In researching the issue, several problems arose as to why this was occurring all over the country. First, disposing of this IT equipment was a challenge because of the high likelihood that sensitive information made its way on to these machines. No school IT director simply wants to hand these off with the risk of unauthorized disclosure of student or teacher information. Second, the high cost of secure data destruction services was hard for barebone IT budgets to bear.

It turned out, this issue didn’t only exist in schools, but also government agencies and private businesses alike. In 2009, the EPA estimated that US consumers and businesses discarded over 2.37 million tons of e-waste, including televisions, computers, cell phones, and IT peripherals. Only about 25% of these electronics were collected for recycling, with the remainder clogging up landfills, where they are unable to be further used and their precious metals are unable to be recovered.

With the need and business opportunity clearly apparent, Kyle got to work assembling a team that could meet the needs of ReTech’s clients across the country. Today, ReTech has a mission of responsibly recycling every piece of e-waste that comes through our doors. This has opened opportunities for ReTech to give back to the communities they serve as well as less fortunate individuals across the globe by getting quality, useful technology in their hands in a way that protects the organizations we work with. Thank you to our clients who have helped us divert hundreds of thousands of pounds of IT equipment from landfills since we began.