AKRON, Ohio — When News 5 first reported on stacks upon stacks of defunct electric scooters in Akron, our story took off.
"The next day, we had people here — it was 4 degrees — and people lined up to buy them," said Ben Baker, Vice President of e-Waste Recycling Solutions. Since that report in January, the waiting list has grown to more than 2,000 people wanting to get their hands on the scooters. One thousand circuit boards are now in Akron from Germany. And those massive piles are seeing some movement, one job at a time. Summit e-Waste staff are working around the clock to put a big dent in their waiting list.
"It actually takes about three minutes for the machine to populate all the components, and then we bake it for about 10 minutes in kind of like a pizza oven," said Nathaniel Hawk, owner of Xadite.