How You Can Make Your Business Waste Work For You

Posted on: 18 August 2015

Many businesses have found they can turn their waste into profit. If you want to do more with your commercial waste than just let a recycling group pick it up, you'll have to invest in some time for research. You will also have to invest in some recycling equipment of your own.

Identifying Your Heavy Waste

What kind of waste does your business produce? Identifying your businesses waste will help you pinpoint the things that you throw out the most. The process may also alert you to waste issues you didn't even know you had. Also, identifying your largest sources of waste can also help you figure out ways to fine tune your process so you don't create as much of it.

Identifying a Need for Your Waste

Check with other local businesses, search online, ask people in your industry. You have to see if there's a need for your particular kind of waste. For example, if you generate a lot of food waste, there's a good chance a local farmer can use it to create compost.

Alternatively, depending on the waste, that same farmer can use it for feed. In fact, there are groups actively seeking food waste for various reasons.

Keep in mind the old adage about one man's trash being another man's treasure.  There are always groups and other businesses looking for a ready supply of raw materials. It's highly possible that your trash is those materials.

Some recycling services will even pay you for a specific type of trash rather than you paying them to pick it up each week. Always stay alert for these kinds of opportunities.

Finding the Right Equipment for Packaging Your Waste

If you do decide to try to monetize your trash, you will likely need the right kind of equipment to do it. If you just pay a recycling service, or your municipality, then you never really have to worry about packaging your waste just right.

You're typically given colored bins and instructions on where to leave your recyclables. However, if you're selling your waste to a third party, or giving it to some non-corporate group, you may have to do a lot of the packaging yourself. You may also have to do the delivering.

To that end, you should invest in one of the following:

  • A shredder
  • A compactor
  • A baler

You may not need all three since it depends on your particular type of waste product. But you'll definitely need a small baler or compactor that's designed for your particular kind of waste. You probably don't require an industrial one, just a small or medium sized piece of equipment.

That's all there is to it. Identify your waste, then do some research to see if there's a market for that waste. Next, invest in equipment that can make gathering and transporting that waste easier for you. Of course, while you're doing all that, you should continue with your normal recycling until you figure out more info.

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