In The News
San Jose Mercury News
Fisher: 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
Now, a South Bay company offers to pick up e-waste and recycle it for free.
In his video report, Jeffrey Schaub rides along with Green Mouse Recycling to see how they are making a business out of gobbling up e-waste.
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GreenMouse Combines Philanthropy, Employee Development and e-Waste Recycling
Re-launched Company Adopts Purpose-Driven Philosophy
“I see GreenMouse as a vehicle to do great things for the community, creating jobs and giving back to non-profit organizations while providing an essential service,” O’Donnell said. “My goal is to put a friendly face on the recycling industry and make sure individuals and businesses know where to turn when they need to dispose of electronic waste.”
GreenMouse is subsidized by the state, so its employees pick up e-waste—everything from computer monitors and TVs to batteries and mobile phones—at no cost to customers. Items are disposed of in accordance with state and federal guidelines, recycled, or even re-purposed…the latter occurring when GreenMouse took on the cost of shipping computers and monitors a Boston company no longer needed to a San Diego school.
“I thrive on finding opportunities where I can help,” O’Donnell said. “I enjoy hiring people who are new to the workforce and especially like getting involved with fundraisers, such as one that is using its proceeds to send kids to New Orleans to build homes for Katrina victims.”
GreenMouse is interested in contracting with large companies that need e-waste disposed of regularly and is equally focused on providing solutions to non-profits, churches and individuals, especially the elderly and disabled, who might be at a loss as to how to dispose of unwanted electronics. The company will be at Greenfair Silicon Valley in San Jose on June 7-8 with their larger-than-life mascot Mr. GreenMouse. For more information about GreenMouse’s services and philosophy, visit http://www.greenmouse.com.
The Rose Garden Resident
Computer Collector
Mary GottschalkAugust 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? Read more