How to Have a Home Recycling Business
A home recycling business gives you a way to reduce your community's impact on the environment while making money at the same time. Tons of trash is thrown out every day, so your business has plenty of opportunities to succeed. First you have to get your business set up for success. Then educate your prospects on the importance of recycling, and you can make a living keeping the environment safe from waste.
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Instructions
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Choose a specialty: paper, plastics, aluminum, small electronic goods or old computers. Look within an industry where you have some experience for your specialty. For example, if you have worked in information technology for 10 years, you may want to specialize in recycling old computers. You may be able to use those old contacts to build the business.
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Organize your home office. Set aside a section of your file cabinet for the records related to your home recycling business.
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Register a fictitious business name with your county municipality, or apply for a business license with your state's department of revenue.
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Allocate space in your garage or a shed in the backyard to store recyclables until you can get them to a recycling center. Clean out the space. You'll need enough space to sort through the materials from time to time to weed out anything that can't be recycled.
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Locate the nearest recycling depot. Start with your local municipality. It may have an information hotline such as 311 that will give you the address of local recycling centers.
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Contact the recycling center. Speak with a representative to review the specifications and regulations for dropping off goods at the center. Also, check the schedule of any waste haulers they may send out to pick up recyclables. Verify their rates.
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Shop for resources such as recycle bins or sturdy trash canisters. Also, purchase gloves for handling recyclables that could have been dug out of a trash can.
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Rent or buy a pickup truck to help make picking up recyclable goods easier. Label the recycling bins if you are going into the business of recycling more than one type of good.
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Market your recycling business to local merchants and residents. Pass out fliers letting everyone in the neighborhood know that your business exists. Ask them to spread the word.
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Create a pickup map and schedule. Map out a way that you can drive through the area several times a week and collect recyclable goods.
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Create a weekly newsletter that you can leave at the local grocery store or in mailboxes throughout the community that educates your prospects on the importance of recycling. Include articles that support your beliefs in the benefits of recycling.
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Clean out your recycling bins with a rush of water and bleach periodically to keep rodents, dogs and small insects from building homes in your recycling area.
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References
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