Heinz Weverink's Electronics Recycling Company: More Than Just Leftovers

Leftovers is a small, family owned recycling business that provides services for electronics reuse and recycling as well as brokerage services for commercial and industrial waste and manufacturing by-product. They work with various businesses and organizations within the community to minimize electronic waste. The company is based in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Heinz Weverink is the owner of Leftovers. Heinz started the company in 2001. "I wanted to go home to doing what I do best," Heinz told me. "It's what I've done before, it's what I enjoy doing and there was a need."

Heinz has been in the environmental field for 35 years. He worked for the State of Maryland enforcing environmental laws and operated solid waste and liquid waste companies in Maryland before coming to Pennsylvania. "I spent of time doing lots of other things, I wanted to get back to something where I could have an impact," he told me.

His family is proud of what he does and tries to help out as much as possible. "The whole family pitches in where ever I need help. It does not matter if it is getting the company name out into the public, assisting with pick-ups or just answering the phone," Heinz said.

Heinz got the idea for Leftovers because, as he told me, "It was something that needed to be done". He spent six months doing research to find the current trends, weakness and needs in the field.

As Heinz told me, the biggest challenge he faced, when it came to getting his business up and running, was "letting the people of the community know what we do". His family helped out with getting the word to the community.

Heinz said that, "Finding the markets for finished materials was also challenging". Now, Heinz is working on finding the capital he needs for the next expansion of the company.

As for the expansion of his company, Heinz is looking for a larger facility that will allow consolidation of smaller shipments that normally do no get recycled. "These shipments are smaller than a truckload," he told me. "We also want to get the equipment to process television sets, because in the next few years every television set in the world will be obsolete because of high definition." The equipment to process television sets would also allow him to process computer monitors which he currently has to ship elsewhere to be processed.

Currently, Heinz's business provides services to a number of school districts, private schools and colleges in South Central Pennsylvania, as well as many businesses and organizations within his community and surrounding communities. He is proud of what he does, "In the last six months, we diverted around 40,000 pounds of waste from the landfill," he said to me. "I expect to double that in the next two months."

However, Heinz and the Leftovers staff does more than just divert waste from the landfill. They also donate the proceeds of what they collect to charity or non-profit organization of the senders choice.

The Billboard is currently collecting PDA's, cell phones, printers and print cartridges, monitors and other electronic equipment toward our club. There will be a white drop off box with green lettering on the bottom floor of Lenfest by the TV cove for anyone who wishes to donate to our club and help the environment.

When asked why Heinz does what he does, he replied, "I do this because it is something I enjoy, it benefits our community, both by making it a little bit cleaner and by establishing an economic base...And I am damn good at it!"