On daily basis we dispose used tins of milk, tomato, sardines, plastics and even nylons in waste bins without thinking of ways to reuse them. Wastes can be unwanted cans of perfume, spoilt batteries, old gadgets, books, chemicals like pesticides and even food.
Wastes are generally discarded after primary use not because they've become useless, but because they've served their primary objectives.
Types of Wastes
Wastes can be grouped into four major categories depending on their material make-up and physical forms. The different types of wastes are:- Liquid wastes: Liquid waste are such liquids as wastewater, fats, oils or grease (FOG), used oil, liquids, solids, gases, or sludges and hazardous household liquids.Some solid wastes can also be converted to liquid wastes or disposal purposes.
- Solid wastes: Solid waste can be defined as any refuse, garbage, sludge from a water supply treatment plant, wastewater treatment plant or air pollution control facility and other discarded materials including solid, liquid, semi-solid, or contained gaseous material, resulting from industrial, commercial, mining and agricultural operations and from community activities.
- Hazardous wastes: Hazardous wastes can be liquids, solids, contained gases, or sludges. They are those wastes that can cause harm to the environment. They could be corrosive, inflammable or toxic in nature. Examples of hazardous wastes include pesticides, fire extinguishers, aerosol cans, old batteries and mercury containing equipment.
- Organic wastes: Organic wastes can also be called green waste and they are organic material like food, garden and lawn clippings. Animal and plant based material and degradable carbon such as paper, timber and cardboard are also examples of organic wastes.
What is Recycling?
Recycling means to treating or processing of used or waste materials so as to make them suitable to be reused. It is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. It is an alternative to "conventional" waste disposal that can save material and help lower greenhouse gas emissions.materials that can be recycled include many kinds of glass, plastic, textiles, tyres, paper, metals (including cardboard) and electronics.
How To Start Waste Recycling Business In Nigeria
Starting a wasted recycling business will not only help you in making money, it'll also help the world by lowering greenhouse gas emissions. Waste recycling business is a very lucrative business that has the potential of yielding a ROI of 60% because of the high demand for these materials by companies.Steps on how to start your own waste disposal business:
- Conduct a market survey
Just like every other business, conducting a market survey is very important and will aid you in properly understanding the secrets of the business. There are three different ways you can be involved in the wast disposal business so you need to have a detailed market survey that will guide you on the best. The three different aspects include:‒ Gathering and selling waste materials: This doesn't require much capital and involves you going around collecting waste materials.In major cities like Lagos, Owerri, Awka, Port Harcourt and Ibadan, you'll see trucks collecting these wastes. Most of the people engaging in this type have places where they deposit the materials after collecting them.
‒ Buy from nomadic waste sellers and resell to companies: If you can't collect the wastes yourself,you can also work with nomadic waste sellers and act as a middle man between them and the companies.
‒ Buy and process wastes yourself: If you have the necessary equipment, you can collect (or buy) these wastes and process them yourself into new materials. This actually is capital intensive and requires that you have a factory, employ workers and also buy the necessary machines.
The market survey will also furnish you with the necessary information on the present market demand for recycled products, the price of the final product, the volume of wastes in an area and your competitors.
- Draft out your business plan
After successfully carrying out the market survey, the next line of action will be to write down you business plan. The business plan will act as a guide in helping you keep focus of what you want to achieve within a given time. Business plans are also important for business that will need loans or investors.Your business plan should contain information like your company's goals and objectives, market strategies, business and management structure, products, modus operandi and forecast of how much that will be needed to run your business for a particular time.
- Specialisation
Knowing the various kinds of recycling and making a decision of which on to choose is very essential. The first question you should ask yourself is the kinds of item(s) to recycle. It can be scrap metal, plastic materials, paper, textile or electronics.You can decide to deal on many different kinds of materials or focus on only one. Your decision should be influenced by:
‒ Available capital
‒ Available machines
‒ Technology required for the recycling process
‒ Availability of the material in an area
After considering the following factors,the decision will be left to you. No decision is bad but it's not advisable to embark on something without being prepared.
- Raising capital
This is a vary important aspect of every business especially start-ups. No business can run without any initial capital, no matter how small. You can raise capital by:‒ Seeking for loans from banks
‒ Seeking from grants
‒ Seeking for private sponsors
‒ Collecting money from your family members and friends
Whatever way you choose it's good and you should also endeavour to keep to the terms.
- Procuring waste materials
Your major raw materials are wastes and your sources will depend on the choice you made about the different types of recycling. You can get waste materials from residential areas, schools, refuse dumps, garbage sites or other companies. You'll also require a truck for transporting the materials to your factory for processing.- Recycling equipment
Recycling of these materials require many machines and equipment. After deciding on the kind of materials to focus on, you'll have to research on the kind of recycling equipment that you'll be needing. Some materials require different while some don't. Acquire these machines and set up for business.- Advertise you business
At this stag you must be set and you're business is up and going. For every business to grow,it must be publicized, especially at infant stages. Print banners, run online adverts, hire billboards, advertise on TV, radios and newspapers if you have the budget. You can check out 7 different types of advertisements that every business must know, they'll help you in making decisions.Waste recycling business is a very important business that not only generates money to the business owners, but also help in making the world better. It has a potential of yielding a Return On Investment of up to 60% monthly with an initial capital of ₦2,000,000. Demand is also very high among companies so generating sales won't be an issue.
I hope this article helped you,don't forget to share and also drop a comment if you have any contributions to make or questions to ask.
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