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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

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It started with a small truck. Robin Igenthron hated commuting by car to Boston from Middlebury for his job at Electronicycle. He had his trucking license, so he bought a truck and began collecting used computers and televisions himself, saving them to be recycled. Soon, he started to review online purchasing requests for specific electronic parts from overseas. It was clear to Igenthron that technology, despite its benefits to society, also had a negative effect on the environment. There remained a need to recycle electronics responsibly.
“Mexicans can’t figure out why Americans are throwing out working televisions,” said Igenthron, who didn’t understand it either. He took action and put his ambitions to the test in May 2003 when he founded Good Point Recycling, an electronics recycling company, where he is now the CEO.
The company’s business model is surprisingly simple. Good Point gets used televisions and computers from hospitals, universities, states, towns and individuals. It also receives purchase orders online from its partners all over the world. Though the default is to recycle the electronics, Good Point is able to export parts that people overseas can reuse. In this way, the company provides a vital service to people who deserve affordable electronics, but who may not have access to them. Good Point benefits, as well.
“Reuse is only 22 percent,” said Igenthron. “But that 22 percent brings in 70 percent of income.”
Part of Good Point’s work is getting the parts to its partners, but the company also attracts people from all over the world (visitors have come from Egypt and Senegal) to its Middlebury facility to teach them about how to recycle properly in their countries. Furthermore, if parts are exported to a company’s facility in Mexico, for example, and it turns out they are not useable, Good Point pays for them to be recycled.
For Igenthron himself, the personal benefits of doing so much good for others and for the environment are enormous.
“This is my dream job,” he said. “I couldn’t decide between international relations, philosophy or environmental studies. This is a really great place to practice all three.”
After graduating from Carleton College in 1984 with a degree in international relations, Igenthron joined the Peace Corps and traveled to Africa, where he visited the Congo and Cameroon. He returned to the United States when criticism for unjust trading practices in the coffee industry was on the rise. From what he learned in Africa, Igenthron knew that boycotting coffee was not the solution.
“The idea is not to stop dealing with them,” he said. “It’s to share with them, visit them and come up with trade that works on both sides.”
Igenthron also knew that tech jobs were excellent employment in developing countries. He saw the rapid development of the Internet in the U.S., especially compared to poorer nations, and did not think it made sense that people in those countries had to buy new computers.
Igenthron went on to receive a degree in Nonprofit Management from Boston University in 1990, and served as the Recreational Director for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection from 1992 to 1999. It was in this position that he began to experiment with electronics management and investigating recycling practices. When his wife, Armelle Crouzières-Igenthron, got a job teaching French at Middlebury College, Igenthron immediately connected with the Vermont environment. He knew it was the perfect place for the birth of Good Point, especially with the community of eager college students, many of whom had critical language skills that enabled the company to provide a service to people around the world.
“We’re just really lucky to have the proximity of Middlebury College,” said Igenthron. “As result of the Middlebury students we’ve been able to get tests they need done in Malaysia translated to labor force in Vermont. We give Middlebury College alumni a lot of credit for [Good Point] having succeeded like it has.”
Igenthron has trusted students from the beginning. His first two employees were students from the College that he met at First Citizens Bank and hired for the summer of 2003. Since then, the company has grown gradually. Good Point expanded to a 50,000 square foot facility in Middlebury to manage their programs in Rhode Island, Long Island, Boston, New Hampshire and Vermont. The company also has a facility in Mexico, completely managed by a women’s cooperative, where it employs 10 people.
Yet Igenthron admits Good Point has struggled recently.
“The recession was really, really hard on us,” he said. “We’re walking wounded.”
In October 2008, just before the crisis, Good Point bought a $1.3 million factory in Middlebury Industrial Park. According to Igenthron, the unfortunate timing led to a “scary year in 2009.” Good Point survived at a time when many other local companies did not, but it now faces trouble getting the financing it needs to grow.
“It’s really hard to get money to buy trucks,” said Igenthron. “No one is lending.”
Yet Igenthron remains optimistic, noting that electronic recycling is a rising business. And while many other companies force people overseas to buy electronic parts, knowing that not all of them are usable, Good Point is one of the few companies that provides responsible services.
“Good Point is probably best known in the U.S. for adopting the middle road,” said Igenthron, who is often invited to speak at other colleges and universities.
Forbes Magazine also recently profiled Good Point. The article, written by a reporter covering India, attracted many Indian investors.
While Good Point and the electronics recycling movement grow, Igenthron stays grounded. He remains committed to providing an affordable service that is in high demand.
“Mining stuff to break it and throw it away is just not sustainable,” he said. “It’s a relatively new idea and it’s a really bad one. What we’re doing is really the only way folks in poor countries are going to get online and really the only way Americans are going to stop this mining and disposing cycle that’s destroying the planet.”

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