Homeboy Industries –which provides training and support to formerly gang-
Homeboy Industries announced this month that it has bought Isidore Electronics Recycling in downtown Los Angeles and the recycling center will now be called Homeboy Recycling Powered by Isidore. It will recycle electronic waste and resell laptops and phones. According to the Los Angeles Times, the recycling center will be operated as its own entity so that it does not interfere with Homeboy’s nonprofit tax status.
Today we celebrated the launch of @HomeboyRecycles along with @HildaSolis and Deputy Mayor Brenda Shockley…what a monumental day! pic.twitter.com/k1bNIJhfwu
— Homeboy Industries (@HomeboyInd) February 16, 2017
The deal, which closed in November, was financed entirely by donations. Homeboy did not disclose the sale price.
Homeboy Industries operates cafes, catering services and silkscreen and embroidery businesses, all of which staffed by formerly incarcerated people going through a training program. The new recycling venture will provide permanent jobs for some of those trainees. Isidore Electronics Recycling already employed people with a criminal history and management saw the acquisition by Homeboy Industries as a good fit.
Electronics recycling can be profitable by mining gold from computer processors and refurbishing and selling popular items like Nintendo video game consoles, the Times reports. Homeboy Industries CEO Thomas Vozzo tells the Times that the recycling center will help Homeboy assist more people.
Now headquartered in downtown Los Angeles, Homeboy Industries was founded by Father Gregory Boyle, pastor of Dolores Mission Church in Boyle Heights. It operates a charter school at the site of its former headquarters on East 1st Street in Boyle Heights.
Photo above from the @HomeboyRecycles Twitter feed.
