Recycling Buzz
Above, you can read articles about various tidbits either about our company, Sacramento recycling facts, and articles related to Set It Aside.
But we wanted to take a bit of time to answer the most common question we have. How Set It Aside came to develop our Sacramento Recycling program. So here is the series of events that caused an award winning marketer to go from helping businesses one at a time, to developing a company designed to help the economy and environment one can at a time.
A client came into Joey Zeleny’s office while he was working on a marketing plan for an environmental company. This customer often met with him and he was compassionate to her struggles. They had recently shut down their business because the economy was just too tight for them to be profitable.
Multi-tasking person that he is, Joey continued to work on the environmental company’s strategy, looking at a local recycler while talking to the client about a new business they were looking to start. As Joey started researching Sacramento recycling habits, the client went on to talk about the business and how they had found the company on a late night infomercial. Realizing the client had spent money they didn’t have on a business that was on late night television, he clicked open a new tab and away from the Sacramento recycling numbers and researched the company offering this quick path to retirement.
Immediately he found information on the company and literally thousands of complaints from people touting the company as nothing more than a scam that was taking people for around $1500.00 each. Turning his monitor to the client, he let them read many of the posts people had placed this get rich quick scheme on their list of lesson learned life experiences as it did little more than turned its people into scam artists. Disgusted, he closed the tab, leaving the recycling data to sit once again on his screen.
It is only when people are faced with true challenges in their lives that their true character is revealed. The customer could have proved integrity and walked away. They could have called the company to fight for their money back and looked for a different business to start. Instead they voiced their want to get at least a couple of customers scammed to make up their loss and a little bit of a profit at the same time.
Joey, irritated at the complete lack of integrity made two mental decisions at this point. First, he was not going to help this customer anymore and instead was going to tell his staff to not allow them to meet with him anymore. Second, this customer was due for a hard dose of reality.
Looking away from his monitor so he wouldn’t be distracted from the recyclables figures on his screen, Joey stared at the customer with the intent of getting their full and undivided attention. He laid into them about their lack of moral fiber at even the thought of hurting others who would trust them because of a bad decision on their part. After about five minutes of unloading on them about how he had been helping them for free but would no longer be helping someone who wanted to make a victim others he finished, expecting them to get up and walk out.
Instead, they soaked everything he had said in and asked him what he thought they should do. Looking back at his monitor as he calmed down he started at the information on his screen about how many different recycling companies there were in Sacramento. Then he said the phrase that would change his world forever.
“Go around your neighborhood and offer to pick up people’s recyclables that they are simply giving away and pay them for them.”
The customer left shortly after and Zeleny returned to his work on the marketing strategy.
After completing the marketing plan, the research Junkie in Joey took over. He realized that most of the cities and municipalities in the Sacramento area used private out of state companies to pick up their recycling. Many who took their recycling to Sacramento recyclers didn’t know that several were owned by out of state interests. He discovered that it took the average person 2 hours of time and a gallon of increasingly expensive gas to turn in just $10.00 of glass bottles and aluminum cans. Joey realized that in his indignant rant, he vocalized a major opportunity to help the environment, the local economy, and build a solid business model.
The next day the customer called up and said that they had no interest in becoming a garbage person and hung up after a brewed string of insults.
Fueled by the customer’s disdain and determination of developing a business that could help the economy and the environment; Joey built an entire business model and based numbers on targeting Sacramento area residents who were turning in their recyclables as a primary focus.
And so was born the recycling option that would change the way Sacramento residents handled their materials. Now people register, Set It Aside picks up their recyclables, sorts them, weighs them, sells them to the highest bidder, and then pays the customer directly.
