Good Point reflects on, celebrates 10 years

Good Point Recycling, an electronics recycling company in Middlebury, recently released its 10-year anniversary report, which re-capped the company’s growth in 2010 and highlighted its numerous accomplishments since its founding in 2001. Good Point’s business model is based on fair trade recycling; all electronics the company receives are either recycled or exported to other countries for reuse. According to the report, Good Point “managed over 5 million pounds of electronics last year,” bringing in $6 million to Addison County. The company’s blog, written by CEO Robin Ingenthron, now gets 10,000 views per month and provides people with critical information about the world of electronics recycling. Over the years, Good Point has become a leader in the budding industry, negotiating with companies in Korea to increase recycling and presenting data to a variety of recycling organizations and publications. News stations such as NPR, PBS and Time have profiled the company.

These accomplishments, just some of Good Point’s recent advances, are especially meaningful for Ingenthron, who recalls a time when the company’s future looked grim.

“I vividly remember when the $12,000 truck that I bought with a home equity loan was diagnosed with a bad motor in 2003,” said Ingenthron. “I had not made any money yet and [had to put] $8,000 for a rebuilt motor onto the credit card.”

Yet Ingenthron’s only option was to keep going.

“There was a moment when the business was propelled by nothing but my own inability to find a job,” he said. “Had I been able to see this report back then I would not have believed it.”

His determination and confidence in the business’ potential was key. The progress is evident each day. Ingenthron noted at 9:30 a.m. that he had not yet gone to the plant, but he knows that it “runs by itself by mature smart people who know what to do.”

“Seven years ago if I wasn’t there in the morning we’d have high school kids playing with the fork truck,” he said.

Still, Good Point has struggled, especially in light of the recent economic recession. Though Ingenthron said the company “is a bit of the walking wounded,” the most important thing is that, unlike others in the industry, it survived.

“I guess I would call it an economic earthquake and our business is still standing,” he said.

Ingenthron attributes much of this success to his employees, some of whom are graduates of the College. Colin Davis ’03, who gained a firm understanding of the industry by working at Ingenthron’s non-profit organization, WR3A, is now vice president of Good Point.

“Good Point’s achievement in growing to be a major player in the region is doubly impressive when you understand the fidelity that Robin maintains to his ideals,” said Davis. “As a person who believes strongly in socially responsible business … it is comforting to see a company like Good Point succeed.”

Davis has travelled as far as Indonesia and Malaysia to research new reuse markets. He stresses that Ingenthron is not only Good Point’s director, he is also a major leader in the industry.

“Everyone — high level EPA officials, Interpol officials, executives at Dell, Goodwill, Sony, reporters for National Geographic, The Atlantic, foreign environmental protection officials, major scrap lobbyists, the largest companies in our industry — seeks Robin out for his expert advice,” said Davis.

Jay Boren ’06, who now works for Google in San Francisco, Calif., has also witnessed the company’s growth and success since the start. Boren worked part-time in Mexico with Las Chicas Bravas, a women’s co-operative with which Good Point works closely. He is confident in the “potential that this model has to create a new paradigm for fair trade recycling and scale to provide environmental and economic benefit globally.”

Oscar Adrian Orta, who has also worked with Las Chicas Bravas and is from Guadalajara, Mexico, agrees that the potential is huge for the industry, and also recognizes “the life changing effects it can create.”

“When we do fair trade recycling the right way [such as Retroworks does], we are able to decrease waste on one end and increase the repair and reuse of components [on the other end] that first world countries deem obsolete but that are of value to developing nations,” said Orta. “Once we do this, we can create a market for reused electronics and thus create new jobs, increase worker’s wages, [and] improve worker’s conditions, among other benefits.”

Though the company has certainly evolved markedly from its beginning, Good Point has always maintained a strong connection with the College.

Missy Beckwith, manager of Bread Loaf campus and waste management, is involved with the school’s recycling program and recalls early meetings between her and Ingenthron “to discuss Good Points Recycling taking the College’s electronics waste.”

The company’s global reach, as well as its effects on the local economy, impresses Beckwith, Boren and others.

“Not only has Good Point moved the needle of the conversation around e-waste recycling in Vermont and the U.S., but the same passion and rationale that has brought about change locally is being applied by Robin and others to improve and inform the international dialogue on fair trade recycling,” said Boren.

While Good Point’s report notes that the company now relies on Vermont for less that 40 percent of the material it processes, it still has strong ties to the state.

“Good Point Recycling has been a true melting pot, not just of international recycling, but of the “town - gown” divide that too often looks like a glass ceiling in Middlebury Vermont,” said Ingenthron.

Still, the company credits the Green Mountain state, as the report indicates that Vermont has made Good Point into a “regional, national, and international player in the electronics recycling field.”

Ingenthron knows that substantial challenges still lay ahead. He said that finding patient capital, “genuine slow growth opportunities,” has proved difficult. Good Point has gotten some investment, but Ingenthron admits it has “missed a number of opportunities.”

“We’re an official contractor in Rhode Island, but we could have done twice as much in Rhode Island,” he said.  “There was a movement a few years ago for patient capital, and the patient capital just is not there.”

Despite these obstacles, Ingenthron is optimistic about the company’s future and remains steadfast in his belief that the electronics recycling industry must grow responsibly, in accordance with the Fair Trade recycling model.

He is most proud of the progress the company has made and the self-sufficient manner in which it now runs. Ingenthron is undoubtedly Good Point’s energizer and leader, but he relishes the fact that his employees are capable in leadership positions as well. When he sees a group, including Davis, an employee from Ghana, Africa and another from Vermont “having a meeting about something and they don’t need me, that’s when I feel best.”