Broadcom Recycles More than 8,500 Pounds of E-waste in Irvine and San Jose on Earth Day 2009
Recycling Program Reinforces Broadcom's Commitment to Environmental Sustainability
On April 22, Broadcom employees in Irvine and San Jose celebrated Earth Day 2009 by recycling over 8,500 pounds of electronic waste including over 1100 pounds of computers, over 4000 pounds of televisions and monitors and over 3000 pounds of printers, fax machines and other miscellaneous items.
Broadcom partnered with GreenMouse, a state-approved collector of electronic waste to collect and recycle electronic products. GreenMouse is committed to significantly reducing the amount of toxins generated by e-waste pollution and to recycle valuable resources such as plastics, glass and other materials used in the manufacturing of electronic goods. http://www.broadcom.com/company/social_responsibility/earthday.php
San Jose Mercury News
Mother helps daughter help the planet
By Patty Fisher, June 20, 2008
The stately colonial house, complete with topiary flanking white pillars on the front porch, doesn't look like the
headquarters of an e-waste recycling business.
Welcome to GreenMouse, not your typical company.
Evelyn O'Donnell, who runs GreenMouse (www.greenmouse.com) from her spacious Rose Garden home, wants your junk. Unwanted computers, printers, cell phones - she'll pick it all up for free. She'll try to find a new home for it. What she can't reuse, she'll sell to a recycler.
"Everything can be repurposed," she said confidently. "People just don't think hard enough about how to get rid of stuff."
But there's more to GreenMouse than recycling. O'Donnell started the company in 2004 with a specific purpose: to give her daughter a job.
Briana O'Donnell showed signs of developmental delays as an infant. She has trouble processing complex instructions and making decisions. After graduating from high school in 1999, she didn't have much success holding jobs.
Meanwhile, Evelyn and her husband, Dick, had retired from successful careers with Silicon Valley start-ups. Evelyn was busy with volunteer gigs, including serving on the board of Children's Musical Theater San Jose, but was looking for a new challenge.
A garage start-up
So in 2004, mom and daughter started the recycling company, which they called eWaste Services.
Why recycling?
"There was such a huge demand," O'Donnell said. "I figured we could do this."
In true Silicon Valley style, they started the company in their garage. Evelyn ran the business and Briana ran the errands.
"Briana is great with people and isn't afraid to walk into a business and hand out fliers and talk about our services," O'Donnell said. "She does pick-ups, helps in the warehouse - whatever I need."
As word spread about the company's services - no pick-up is too small - the business took off. They rented a warehouse across town, added four employees and attracted corporate clients like Jenny Craig and Abbott Labs. Revenues have grown into the low six-figures, but O'Donnell is still plowing them back into the company.
O'Donnell has traveled all over the country picking up surplus TVs, refrigerators, microwave ovens, even furniture - and has found new lives for computers, laboratory tables and sectional sofas. She's as much a matchmaker as a recycler.
Briana, who's 27, lives on her own and takes community college classes when not working for her mom.
Focus on helping
Not every parent can start a business just to give a disabled child a job. But O'Donnell figured that since she could, she would.
"I wanted her to have the opportunity to have a career," she said. "To learn how to deal with customers and develop social skills. I could guide her. I could help her."
Besides, Briana isn't the only one benefiting from GreenMouse. A lot of that recycled junk has found its way to schools, children's programs and other non-profits.
O'Donnell recently changed her company's name to GreenMouse, which doesn't sound quite as nerdy as eWaste Services.
"I'm not really saving the planet," she said modestly. "But there are so many opportunities created by e-waste. Old refrigerators, computer equipment, it all can be turned into money. I want to be able to funnel that money back into the community."
At age 57, O'Donnell is up at 5 a.m., and at her desk in her home office late into the evening. Her phone rings constantly. I asked her when she plans to retire for good.
"Actually, I still think of myself as being retired," she said. "Because what I'm doing doesn't seem like work."
CBS 5 News
S. Bay Company Offers Free Electronic Waste Pickup
Jeffrey Schaub, Green Beat Reporter, June 6, 2008
E-waste like Computer monitors, DVD players, cell phones, and TVs can be tough to get rid of because they aren't supposed to go in the dumpster. Now, a South Bay company offers to pick up e-waste and recycle it for free. In his video report http://cbs5.com/video/?id=35036@kpix.dayport.com, Jeffrey Schaub rides along with Green Mouse Recycling to see how they are making a business out of gobbling up e-waste.
The Rose Garden Resident
Mary Gottschalk, August 22, 2007
San Jose, California: Evelyn O'Donnell never used to think about where old computers went. Now O'Donnell not only thinks quite a bit about old computers, cell phones, televisions and microwave ovens, she also knows exactly where they go because she's putting them there. O'Donnell is the founder of eWaste Services, which collects unwanted electronics from both businesses and individuals and then delivers them to state-authorized recyclers. Although she runs the business she founded in 2004 out of her Rose Garden home, O'Donnell collects electronic waste throughout California and recently signed a contract to recycled unwanted computers at all Jenny Craig locations across the United States as well as in Canada and Puerto Rico.
8/22/07: Where do old computers go?
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Children's Musical Theater San Jose Celebrates Earth Day with Recycling Campaign this Spring - April 16, 2010
GreenMouse Recycling News
News at Cisco.com - August 24, 2010
The cast of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, performed by CMT Mainstage (ages 14-20) have taken a different path. Director John McCluggage
suggested the song, "Somewhere That's Green" become a call to recycling. Local e-recycler, GreenMouse Recycling owner Evelyn O'Donnell said, "Great! Getting kids involved in their community is what recycling is all about. Face it, a world without recycling is truly a shop of horrors!" GreenMouse, Inc. is a San Jose-based company providing electronics collection and computer recycling services to businesses and residential consumers throughout California. The cast is supporting the recycling effort in the rehearsal Hall and promoting GreenMouse's recycling efforts in the show's program. "One of our guiding principles at CMT is to provide a positive nurturing community and we believe encouraging our performers and patrons to give back is part of that," said Ann Hurst, managing director of Children's Musical Theater San Jose. http://sanfrancisco.broadwayworld.com/printcolumn.cfm?id=121668
