RNA Worldwide Recycles Everything from Medical Equipment to Cellphones

Whether it’s office equipment or cellphones, appliances or a home computer, RNA Worldwide, 2960 Arnold Tenbrook Rd., can recycle it.

RNA Worldwide is a secure full-service recycling center for appliances, electronics, metal, computers, phones, medical equipment, old speakers, stereos and essentially anything with a plug or a battery.

“We get everything from medical and lab equipment to personal computers and batteries, electronic circuit boards, metal, steel, you
name it,” owner Rick Nelson said. “Anything with a wire or a battery we can recycle it down to 100 percent. Anything with any kind of metal in it, we can break it down and sell it. We currently turn
about 30 tons a week away from the landfill.”

Those 30 tons of cellphones, office equipment and other materials are broken down to their component parts, which are then sold to local handlers for further processing.

“We separate everything as far as we can go with it and take it to our local processors, who separate it down to raw material,” Nelson said. “We’ve got a zero-landfill policy. Nothing we handle goes into a landfill, and certainly nothing we take goes overseas for processing. Everything we take gets processed here within about a 30-mile radius.”    

RNA is registered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources as an electronics recycling facility.

The company has been in business for four years and has operated on Arnold Tenbrook Road for two and a half.  

RNA employs about 10 people on average and offers pickup for offices and other businesses that have equipment to recycle. The business also offers the service for neighborhood cleanup events.

Nelson said he learned about the business while working in information technology. After he purchased and refurbished old equipment, he needed somewhere to dispose equipment that could not be repaired.

“I started buying up used equipment from other electronic recyclers for refurbishing and selling it, and over the years, I learned the business,” he said.

In addition to fully recycling all the materials it handles, RNA provides secure data destruction onsite.  RNA uses multipass Department of Defense level wipes and hard drive punching. After the data wipe there is no data remaining on the drives. Certificates of destruction are available upon request.

With a loading dock crammed with everything from old stereos to box full of electronic ankle monitors, Nelson sees a bright future in the electronics and metal recycling business.

“We’re growing rapidly,” he said. “We’ve doubled our numbers consecutively since day one. Each year, we have doubled our numbers from the previous year. That includes volume and waste diversion as well. Nothing is wasted ever. The littlest piece of plastic is 2 cents a pound. There’s no need for any of it to be wasted.”