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Your recycling program can be a valuable income generator which improves your bottom line or frees up funding for other sustainability initiatives.
Here’s the top 3 ways to generate revenue from your recycling program:
1. Paper and cardboard are worth more than you think!
Recyclable materials are a commodity, so find out the market value in your region and discover how much your recyclables are worth.
Here’s the average price of some common recyclables in North America:
Armed with the knowledge of the value of your recyclables you’ll be able to talk to your waste hauler about getting discounted fees. Some organizations that discard a large volume of high value items like cardboard or white office paper have actually started selling these items directly to the paper mills or recycling facilities to generate income.
2. Reduce your waste hauling fees
Considerable savings can be made on your waste hauling contract by simply taking a look at how often it’s being collected.
Before
|
After
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In the example above the organization was previously having daily pickups whether their containers were full or not. By simply changing their pickup schedule to when their bins were actually full the company saved 57% in hauling fees. Here’s how:
| Before | After | Savings | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average pick up @ $25 | 7 x $25 = $175/wk = $9,100/ year |
3 x $25 = $75/wk = $3,900 / year |
$5,200 per year 57% saving |
3. Centralized recycling program
Many of our clients such as Harley Davidson and Wilfred Laurier University have made substantial cost avoidance savings by moving to a centralized recycling program. By removing desk side containers considerable savings are made on liners and custodial fees. See our example of how a company can save $100,000 by implementing centralized recycling.
Centralized recycling also has many other benefits such as empowering employees to be more aware of what trash they’re generating and how they’re disposing of it. This helps reduce the contamination of the recycling streams which in turn helps increase the value of your recyclable assets.
For more information on how to implement a revenue generating recycling program contact us today at 1- 1-888-646-4246 or email info@cleanriver.com.
