Join the Greener Revolution by Ollie Hunter

Author:Ollie Hunter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pavilion Books

18 RECYCLING FOR PROFIT

Recycling is not only good for the planet, it can be good for your wallet too. Waste is a by-product but, as the name suggests, it’s still a product. The number of discarded by-products around the world must equate to the throwing away of millions, if not billions, of pounds every day. For example, globally there could be a material cost saving of $700 billion just in fast-moving consumer goods like household cleaning products, and $560 billion in the fashion industry.

In the story of Mr Crisp and Farmer Spud (see here), the starch from the potatoes was used to make packaging and the steam from cooking the potatoes was turned into electricity. Here the by-products were identified and turned into new products to increase profit and reduce waste. A little time spent thinking creatively, and Mr Crisp now has an exciting circular business model for the future, saving money and reducing waste.

Whether thinking about recycling for profit at home or as part of a business, the first process to go through is the separation of materials. To make life easy for yourself, try to buy goods with minimum packaging that is easily identifiable in the first place. If you do this, you’ll have less work to do separating everything out and you won’t be confused about what is actually recyclable. The next bit is to find a by-product with a viable market and find a buyer. Have a quick search online, and you’ll see there are many apps, websites and social media platforms where you can sell or barter your goods. Some ideas to inspire you are:

□ Jam jars sold to super trendy bars as glasses

□ Wine bottles can be sold to make walls (for example in Earthships)

□ Corks as wedding place holders

□ Cardboard rolls from toilet paper can be sold as fire lighters

□ Scrap metal is always worth something

□ Material or paper can be made into lampshades

□ Compost is always valuable and very expensive if bought from shops

□ DVDs and CDs can be cut up and turned into shiny Christmas decorations or hanging shapes that scare pigeons in the garden

□ Old phones and electrics can be sold online via websites that buy second-hand goods

□ Old glass can be made into a form of porcelain and then turned into plates and crockery

□ A company called Precious Plastics have designed a small-scale plastic grinder that makes recycling old plastics into new goods easy for anyone to do. Look them up online: preciousplastic.com

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