You need vision, perseverance, and grit with money.
Hello Hive family, this is my second post after my introduction post, and many seem awed by a recycling individual joining the blockchain. I will be sharing the story of how I got into the recycling industry.
The Beginning
Growing up as the first child of the family, I developed these introvert traits and took solace in reading books in my Dad’s library. That was where I read a book on waste to wealth written during the military era of General Sani Abacha. As a kid, I was surprised by the things that can be done from waste products. However, the interest died due to school activities as I was in Junior Secondary School then.
Getting admission into the university to study Microbiology, and as a huge football fan, I came about recycling in my courses and in the football matches. Real Madrid beat Sporting Gijon 2-1 in November 2016 thanks to Ronaldo’s double, but the scoreline wasn’t the highlight of the game neither was Ronaldo’s double but their jersey. Real Madrid wore a jersey made from recycled plastic bottles recovered from the Indian Ocean. I was surprised to learn that each shirt was made from 28 discarded bottles. That was what renewed my interest in recycling, especially PET Plastic Recycling.
It was not until November 2022 that I was able to kickstart my business by reaching out to a friend who has been in the industry for years for proper information. He acted as a consultant, and I went back to my state to start researching the feasibility of the business there.
The feasibility study came out fine, and I had no choice but to get land and start preparation.
PET bottles in my recycling hub
Starting in 2023 required getting raw materials on ground before the locally fabricated baling machine I paid for got completed.
My First Locally Fabricated Baling Machine
The locally fabricated baler
I didn’t have money to buy an expensive and reliable foreign baling machine. So I did what any determined entrepreneur would do and that is starting.
The locally fabricated machine I bought was around $8,000 then, with foreign baling machines tripling that amount. The expensive foreign baling machine made me go for the locally fabricated one.
Baled PET plastics
The baling machine was a nightmare. It hardly worked a full day without encountering an issue. We paused work for months to fix it, only for it to work 2 hours and encounter another issue.
Delivery of the foreign baler
This went on for a whole year, limiting production and collection, before I could get a foreign baling machine in 2024 which has been a lifesaver.
The Staff
The business has grown exponentially with 28 direct staff, out of which 18 are women. We have different departments such as the sorters, machine operators, finance, security, media, and management. Each department has its roles and responsibilities.
The Journey So Far
Presently, we have 2 baling machines, the foreign and the locally fabricated machine in operation. We also have fabricated a manual washing machine to wash dirty and oily PET plastics before baling.
Bales from Foreign Baler
The plastics lose value if they are dirty and oily, thereby reducing their revenue. We have a manual washing machine that is utilized to clean them.
We have so far collected and recycled over 613,444 kilograms of PET plastics since inception. This is equivalent to 30,672,200 pieces of PET plastics diverted away from landfills, oceans, and burning and being recycled.
If I were to create football jerseys from it, it means a total of 1,095,435 shirts would be created. This is massive and shows the impact of what we have achieved in so little time.
My Thoughts
The recycling business is a bitter-sweet one. You encounter many people that don’t care about the environment and want profit at all costs. They put all sorts of things like stones and fill the bottles with sand and water to get more profit illegally.
Determination, perseverance, and the love for doing something impactful keep driving me on.
Let me know in the comments if you are interested in doing something similar in your locality.
I am open to collaborating on your project if it aligns with circular economy and sustainability.
All the pictures are solely mine and of my company and taken with my device
Just wanted to say what you are doing is so cool.
I have thought of starting a plastic recycling initiative at my place in the Philippines. There are a LOT of plastic bottles that are not properly recycled and more often than not....burned.
There are many reasons why its hard to get people to recycle but one of the is that individual bottles are just worth so little that its less than the smallest denomination of currency. That's why I love the idea of using a HIVE coin to give value to even the smallest of returns.
I really love the idea of taking in the plastics and doing upscaling on site. You mentioned football jersey's and how many you could make with the plastic you recycle. Imagine having a plastic extruder which turns your bottles into textile and then having it turned into clothing or other useful items :)
However it is all a dream right now but thanks for sharing what you are doing. Look forward to seeing more in the future :)
It all boils down to capital. I look forward to doing great thing in the recycling space.
You can start a social enterprise sort of thing in Phillipines. Reward users and encourage local aggregators so you can get plastics in bulk
Well, my biggest issue is that I'm only in the Philippines 4 months of the year. I see a huge opportunity but I also know if I'm not there to watch over things daily (or at least most days) then the venture it doomed to fail.
Still, every time I look at plastic bottles being burned at the side of the road I keep thinking "I've gotta do something about this".
Oh. Now, I see the issue. If you can have a structure in place for the 4 months. Then work things from there by having a trusted hand overlook.