It started innocently enough: take in a few televisions for a small fee and recover the valuable material from the scrap electronics to help collect a few extra dollars. William was on a fixed income, a veteran of World War II, he lived a quiet life in rural Dagget township in Menominee County in Michigan鈥檚 Upper Peninsula (U.P.).聽 Social security paid them a limited income but as living expenses rose, that income did not cover the daily living costs. A couple of extra dollars each month helped pay the bills and put food on the table for his family. He figured that he and his wife lived in a very rural area of the county in the U.P. so no one would notice.
One thing led to another.聽 William discovered that if you promoted the service a little bit, you could get a bunch more electronics.聽 So, they ran an ad on the local radio station. 鈥淏ring us your unwanted televisions and we will take care of them鈥� was the essence of the ad. The residents had no other recycling options in the area, so the electronics showed up. Even though the state had a takeback program, it seemed to have left the rural areas of the U.P. out of the loop.
Even more TVs came in, then some computers, then a couple printers, and then some refrigerators. Soon more came in than William would scrap out. With the increased volume came some problems. Some of the electronics had materials in them that could not be recycled. They had no value. They were very expensive to get rid of. If they were hauled to the local dump, then it would wipe out the little bit of income being made from the metals and wires in electronics.