Whatever happened to the Tire Shark for Tire Recycling?
Back in 2006, Oakleaf my esteemed competitor, came out with a cool product called the Tire Shark. It compacted tires and then nailed them so they’d stay squished. Saved a lot of space – as you know air in a dumpster or roll off costs you money and makes your waste disposal company money.
Tire Shark
Anyway, I can’t find any mention of Tire Shark on the Oakleaf web site, except for a product launch press release. I found an expired domain name, “thetireshark.com,” but so sign of the beast.
Can anyone tell me, is it still around?
All I can find are these tire sharks:
Tire Shark for Tots
The Art Crowd's Tire Shark
Sell Your Gadgets On Gazelle
Now that consumers are swarming the malls, it may not surprise you learn the average US consumer spends $1,500 every year on electronic gadgets. So we Americans are churning and burning through our electronics really fast. That’s where Gazelle comes in.
Gazelle enables recycling through a neat business model that’s akin to Netflix, another favorite of mine. View how Gazelle works here, but suffice it to say you notify Gazelle of the items you want to dispose of, they make you an offer and, if accepted, send you the box. When you send it back, you get paid!
Not a bad way to close the end of life loop for consumer electronics!
What’s more, businesses, non-profits and schools can sell to Gazelle in bulk too!
I hope Gazelle pans out. It’s a novel idea and a needed one. I am going to try it out soon and I’ll post my experience when I do. Why not try Gazelle yourself and let me know how it goes?
Franchise Waste Collection Areas
Many communities in California and Florida provide special challenges to organizations looking to reduce their waste disposal and recycling expenses. In fact, many organizations upon learning they are in a franchised market simply give up.
What is a Franchise Waste Collection Area?
Here is a compare and contrast I excerpted from Los Angeles:
Current Open-Market System
Solid waste collection services are provided through an open-market system in which each resident directly arranges for services with the hauler. Although many waste haulers are doing a good job, this system has been unable to meet demands created by changes in Federal and State laws, public attitudes toward protecting the environment, and consumers’ demands for better services and protection against excessive rate increases.
Proposed Franchise System
The new franchise system will provide residents with ways to dispose of solid waste in an environmentally-friendly way. Haulers selected to provide solid waste collection services are required to enter into a franchise agreement with the County based on specific terms and conditions. The agreements are based on services expressed by the community and are designed to improve customer service, increase accountability, promote cleaner neighborhoods, and regulate rates charged by haulers.
Benefits of Franchise System
The franchise system is designed to provide uniform service standards for haulers operating in each franchise area. The system provides each community with the flexibility needed to create services that will benefit area residents. These features are modified to reflect feedback received through survey cards, community meetings, and telephone calls. This interactive process allows the County to tailor each agreement to meet the needs voiced by each community. The franchise system also benefits the community by limiting the wear and tear on County streets, assists the County in meeting the State’s waste reduction mandate, and reduces the need for new landfills.
To me this definition is vague. Essentially franchise waste collection areas serve to reduce the number of garbage trucks driving around town and ensure a greater amount of compliance for the community.
What this means for an organization is that they have a difficult time negotiating rates because there is no competition. The rates have been determined by the local government. This is widely true, but not always. You have to make a few calls to double check.
Since most people’s idea of waste cost reduction is simply rate negotiations, you can see why they give up when confronted with a franchised market. However, waste reduction and recycling is still wide open and can provide a a big cost reduction.
Keep in mind that recycling rates are most often lower than waste disposal rates and recyling more can net you a win. Then there are other methods of reducing the frequency of pick ups that will drive down costs.
To be honest, these projects take some elbow grease and often busy managers never find the time to do their best. In short franchise markets are a great place to get a third party involved. OK, that’s a plug, but it’s the reality.
Recycling for Manufacturing
Creative recycling can go a long way towards minimizing waste disposal costs. Recently we got creative with recyling recommendations for a manufacturer. Two waste streams in particular were bulky and hard to compact.
The first was literally acres of tarps. These are the blue tarps you can buy at any home improvement or hardware store. Thing is, they were huge since they’re meant to wrap trains during transit. We sourced a local home improvement non-profit who was willing to accept the tarps and cut them down to (re)salable sizes. A win-win, but also one with strong local PR and media potential.
How to recycle tarps
The second waste stream was small spools. Purchasing sourced the material at lower cost, but the spools were not recylable nor were they returnable to the supplier. Nor was the disposal cost part of Purchasing’s math. This item made the case for a sustainable or green purchasing practices.
It's smart to source recyclable or returnable spools
What materials at your plant or shop can you recycle with just a little effort and creativity?
Waste to Oil
There’s a lot of good in so called waste to energy initiatives. Good for the planet. Good for the economy. Good for jobs and value creation.
Waste to energy typically entails building a small processing plant that serves a small area, one project we’ve proposed is meant to serve just one plant – and save $10,000,000 annually plus avoid $5,000,000 in planned capital replacement expenditures.
Contrary to most people’s understanding, waste to energy does not mean incineration. Rather it entails gasification or other chemistry to create the desired product whether that be steam to power a turbine or in this example, $10 a barrel oil.
How can waste to energy benefit your organization?
