A lot of people are actively involved in plastic recycling, but there’s a serious problem to it; startup capital. The startup capital for running a plastic recycling factory is on a high end. It’s estimated to cost about 25 million Naira ($84,000) to set up a plastic recycling factory. This cost is extremely high for the common man because of the cost of building the factory, purchasing the recycling machines, and many other factors. But around every problem, there’s a solution or two lurking around the corner. Rather than setting up a plastic recycling factory, recycling businesses are springing up that focus majorly on the collection and distribution of plastic bottle wastes to plastic recyclers. This opportunity pays off greatly for many businesses that want to venture into full time plastic recycling on the long run. If your business starts with collecting plastic bottles, you could be on your way to owning your own recycling factory with dedicated hard and smart work.
Before you start your collection of plastic bottle recyclables, you need to know what type of plastic bottles are majorly used, what processes the plastic bottles go through before the final sale, the recycling machines that are used, and a lot more important facts. This plastic recycling business plan for the collection and supply of plastic bottle recyclables, would give you a broad insight on what it takes to start collecting plastic bottles for recycling.
Here is the plastic recycling business plan with steps to fully setting up a profitable plastic recycling collection business:
Step 1: What type of plastic bottles do recycling factories require?
Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) is the answer. These are the common plastic bottles that you see on a daily basis. Examples of these are soda and water bottles like the coca-cola plastic bottles, pepsi plastic bottles, most bottled waters, and many more. PET bottles are majorly used because they are the easiest to recycle. Their recycled by-products can be used to make life jackets, bags, ropes, furniture, combs, car bumpers, and of course, plastic bottles. There are also other types of plastic bottles that can be recycled, but PET bottles are the most popular plastic bottles that are recycled in Nigeria.
Step 2: How can I find plastic bottles for recycling?
There are various channels to acquire plastic bottles:
1). You can get plastic bottles by building small metal trucks and leasing it out to individuals that’d push the trucks on a daily basis:
These individuals would move from place to place to pick up plastic bottles on the streets, then drop them in their trucks. When they’ve picked up so much for the day, they would reconvene at your recycling dump site to weigh what they’ve collected and get paid for it. Usually, they are paid 20 Naira per kilogram for everything they deliver for the day. So if they bring back 25kg, they’re paid about 500 Naira ($1.6). This means if they can turn in 1000kg (one ton) a day, they’d get paid subsequently with the right adjusted calculation. This fee is a standard in the Nigerian plastic recycling industry. A perfect example of a recycling company that uses a similar method is Wecyclers. They use something they call Wecycles to pick up plastic bottles from households and the likes.
2). You can get plastic bottles from event centres:
After every occasion and event, lots of plastic bottles are always littered around. You could make a good deal by talking with the cleaners, security staff, or the event organisers themselves to either give you their plastic waste for free, or sell them to you for a small fee.
3). You can get plastic waste from restaurants and fast-foods:
With thousands of restaurants and fast-foods scattered all over the country, there’s an abundance of plastic bottle wastes to be collected daily. Strike deals with the cleaners, and they would store and sell the plastic bottle wastes to you for a little personal extra cash at the end of each day.
4). You could pick from public dump sites:
Dump sites by far have the largest collection of plastic wastes. But beware of cabals at the sites. They control everything from the pickup to the payments. This collection method was saved for last because, although it has huge potentials, the politicking behind getting the plastic wastes from any dump site in Nigeria might not be worth your time.
There are many other intelligent means to get plastic wastes; by offering households incentives to store their plastic wastes for your collection business, and a lot more. Get creative and explore many other channels for collecting plastic wastes no one else has explored.
Step 3: Now I know how to get plastic bottle wastes. What next?
Next you need to consider transportation and many other factors. Transporting the plastic bottle wastes from various pick up sites to your personal dump site, and finally the recycling company’s factory, also carries it’s own cost. Transportation could reduce or completely eliminate your potential profit if not handled well. But hey, there’re ways to still transport and make huge profits. These methods have to do with what happens to the plastics when they get to your dump site before transportation to the recycling factory for sale:
1). If you sort and clean the plastic bottles before you deliver it, the amount you’d be paid goes a little higher.
2). If after sorting, you use a bailing and cutting machine to compress the plastic bottle wastes to smaller sizes, you’d be paid even more for the recyclable delivered to the recycler for sale.
3). If after bailing, you use a grinding machine to grind the bailed plastics, your payment cost goes even higher.
So let’s do the math. Let’s say you gathered one ton (1000kg) of plastic bottle wastes and prepared it for sale to a recycling factory, here would be your return on investment per level:
1). Without sorting and with sorting could be around 25 to 30 Naira per kg which would amount to about 25,000 to 30,000 Naira ($83.4 to $100). When you put in the cost of collecting the plastics, transportation, and more, you could make not more that 5000 Naira ($16.7) in profit or a terrible loss. If you sell ten tons (10,000kg), your revenue would be between 250,000 to 300,000 Naira ($834 to $1000). At this stage of plastic recycling collection and sale, what would determine if you turn in a profit would be how you handle expenses, especially on transportation.
2). If after sorting, you bail or grind, you could be paid between 65 to 75 Naira per kg. This would mean you’d make about 25,000 Naira ($83.4) more in profit per each ton (1000kg), than when you simply collect and sort. If you handle your expenses well, you could earn more than 25,000 Naira ($83.4) per ton in profit. Tracking your expenses is crucial to your success.
Bailing or grinding means if you deliver 10 tons (10,000 kg) a week, you’d make at least 250,000 Naira ($834) in profit every week. From all indications, bailing and/or grinding is the right way to go. A little challenge here is the cost of the bailing and grinding machine. The cost of an average bailing machine on Alibaba is between $3000 to $8000.
3). After you’ve bailed and/or ground, you’d need to transport your final products to the recycler. Find the cheapest and most effective transporter you know to assist with the transportation of your plastic bottle recyclables to the recycling factory for sale. It’s even better if you own a truck that can handle this for you.
With this plastic bottle recycling business plan for a collection & distribution business, you can better easily get started. Visit local plastic bottle dumpsites in your city to see how it all works. This would fully prepare your mind for the task ahead. With the right tools, hard & smart work, and a solid distribution network, you’d be on your way to success only from sourcing plastic bottle recyclables.
ALL THE VERY BEST
Source.... http://startuptipsdaily.com/how-to-start-plastic-recycling/
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