Is Product Destruction Necessary?

Without a doubt, yes, product destruction is necessary, especially when it comes to discontinued, defective, or non-compliant products. Stopping expired or faulty products from getting into nefarious hands is critical for ensuring long-term success for your company.

In this article, we’ll discuss the consequences of failing to destroy faulty products and how JWC Environmental can help you protect your brand.

The Consequences of Not Destroying Products

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recalls hundreds of products annually. Once recalled products are removed from store shelves, the manufacturers must ensure they’re no longer in public circulation.

Failing to destroy defective or obsolete products can drag your company’s reputation through the mud, mainly due to the effects of gray market activities and potential health liabilities.

The Gray Market & Fraud

Gray markets are created when legitimate products are sold for profit outside the brand’s established distribution channels. While it’s not technically illegal, it often leaves brands with no concise understanding of who is selling their goods, where they’re selling them, what condition they’re in, or how much they’re being sold for. Furthermore, monitoring gray markets grows increasingly challenging as the e-commerce realm continues its exponential expansion.

By some estimates, gray market sales have increased at least 60% over the past six years. These activities are increasingly affecting manufacturers of durable goods like laptops, cell phones, and other consumer electronics. In fact, Samsung has been battling gray market sales for years, with estimates suggesting that up to 20% of its devices sold are obtained through gray market channels. To battle the adverse effects of gray market sales, Samsung has recently begun blocking thousands of smartphones sold throughout Mexico.

Potential Health Risks & Liabilities

It’s also crucial to destroy imperfect or tainted products so they don’t negatively impact the health of your customers.

Some recent examples of major companies that have had to recall defective or dangerous products include:

• J.M. Smucker: The J.M. Smucker Company recalled at least 45 products for possible salmonella contamination. If these products hadn’t been expediently and effectively destroyed, they could have been resold and sickened thousands.
• Secura: After a recent September 2023 CSPC recall, Secura provided refunds for over 6,000 air fryers with imperfect wire connections that could cause fires. If they had not been destroyed, they could have ended up for sale on the gray market and caused serious injury or death.
• Visual Comfort & Co: Just this year, Visual Comfort & Co recalled 6,400 fans because the blades were cracking and breaking off the units. If these had been sold on the gray market, they would have likely caused hundreds of injuries.

Products like these must be destroyed to help preserve public health and safety and maintain and preserve companies’ long-term favorability.

How JWC Environmental Can Help You Protect Your Brand

Shredding is the best way to destroy defective or discontinued products effectively.

JWC Environmental designs and manufactures highly innovative and reliable industrial shredders. Our recommended systems for product destruction include:

• 3-SHRED, 3-SHRED-2
• 4-SHRED
• Zero Waste Monster

3-SHRED, 3-SHRED-2

Our 3-SHRED and 3-SHRED-2 units are designed to cut challenging solids and expired, obsolete, or non-compliant materials down to size quickly and effectively. This industrial shredder has two rows of high-torque steel cutters that rotate slowly to easily reduce tough materials like rocks, wood, clothing, and plastic and has a throughput range of up to 141 ft³/hr.

The 3-SHRED and 3-SHRED-2 also feature an automated monitoring system to reduce downtime and improve grinder performance, customizable cutter configurations, powerful 5 to 10-HP motors, and optional custom hoppers and stands to improve efficiency.

4-SHRED-2

The 4-SHRED-2 is similar to our 3-SHRED models but has more power. It has 15 to 40-HP motors, is constructed for some of the most challenging grinding functions, and has a throughput range of up to 393 ft³/hr.

Like the 3-SHRED models, the 4-SHRED-2 features dual-shafted, low-speed, high-torque cutters that can be customized based on the application, automated monitoring, and optional custom hoppers and stands. This shredder has been proven effective in many applications, including the destruction of off-spec and contraband products.

Zero Waste Monster

The Zero Waste Monster is one of our best solutions for product destruction because it’s a self-contained, four-stage depackaging system that can separate liquids, gels, and semi-solids from their plastic, glass, or metal containers.

This automated system integrates a shredder, which breaks open the packaging and separates the liquids and semi-solids from the packaging, and an auger system that washes, compacts, and dewaters the packaging to reduce transportation and handling costs. The auger screens in Zero Waste Monster are available in multiple perforations (up to 10mm) to handle different waste streams. This system has a throughput range of up to 205 ft³/hr.

Additionally, the Zero Waste Monster has a flexible, mobile design and can be used with the 3-SHRED and 4-SHRED units and any custom cutter configuration. The spray wash nozzles can be customized based on your needs, and the water flow can be easily controlled from the hopper and wash tank. It also comes with an optional roller base to improve portability, and a discharge bagger, custom hopper, or custom discharge tube lengths to improve application efficiency.

Learn More About Our Solutions Today

JWC Environmental has been developing highly efficient shredding and grinding solutions for over 50 years and is proud to be a name manufacturers worldwide can trust.

Please contact us today if you have questions about our product destruction solutions or to request a quote.