environmental Strategist, between the lines: Below is information on a sustainable
website that can assist your construction and real estate developers to increase sales
and reduce environmental liabilities, while better protecting human health and the
environment.
When you consider that sustainability has become a social value and therefore a business opportunity, this service can offer some advantages.
Environmental Risk Management Strategies:
- Under Federal Law (Superfund) you own your manifested waste from cradle to grave. If you are able to reduce the waste sent to disposal facilities it can reduce future Superfund liabilities.
- Using this site could reduce job costs and allow users to be more competitive when bidding work.
- Users can market how as part of their “Best Practices” they divert waste from landfills and reuse or recycle appropriate materials.
- Businesses that take advantage of the website can use it as a social value marketing tool to generate new business opportunities.
(Note: I have not tried this website service.)
Nothing Wasted
03/21/2011 by Wayne Engebretson
Here’s an interesting B2B enterprise that’s both forward-looking and simultaneously “circular” in thought — connecting companies by mutual interest in material waste. RecycleMatch is an online marketplace that is seeking to take the “fill”
out of landfill, but providing a means for companies to sell, and even give, recyclable materials to other companies that might want to reuse, upcycle, recycle, or downcycle those materials for a variety of uses. By building a supply and demand mechanism for the 7.7 billion tons of commercially generated non-hazardous materials currently considered waste, they are succeeding in making the recycling market more efficient and a viable, cost-efficient option for sustainable-minded businesses.
Comparisons to eBay seem natural in light of its auction-based business model of buying and selling by bidding, lending new meaning to the phrase “what’s one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” Sellers can list their materials on RecycleMatch at no cost, paying only once they’ve chosen a qualified buyer. Sellers pay a 5% commission on a sale, or a $5/ton landfill diversion fee. The minimum fee is $250.
For buyers, there is no cost to use RecycleMatch. Advantages for buyers include:
Availability of a wide selection of materials; customized email alerts; the opportunity
to make inquiries to sellers through a confidential messaging system; viewable
sellers reputation scores; and a complimentary escrow service for safe payments and
transactions.
Materials that can be bought and sold cover a wide spectrum:
- Plastics – Among the types available are Polystyrene, PolyPropylene, PolyEthylene Terephthalate (PET)
- Paper – Includes cardboard, newsprint, office and printer-grade paper
- Metals – Types include non-ferrous, ferrous, and alloys
- Textiles – Acetatea and Triacetate, acrylic, and carpet, among others
- Rubber – Butyl, EPDM, Hose/belts and latex
- Chemicals – Acids, adhesives, bases
- Building Materials – such as glass windows and concrete scrap
- Electronics
- Wood
RecycleMatch provides short case studies on their web site that illustrate how their service can provide mutual benefits for participating companies. A few notable examples :
An oil company in Houston whose LEED™ certified building was damaged by Hurricane Ike. Thousands of windows were damaged, but was deemed unrecyclable due to the special film used on the glass. RecycleMatch helped prove the consensus wrong — a match was found for a company that could crush the glass and use it for manufacture of counter tops and other green building materials
A paint roller manufacturer from Wisconsin wanted a recycling solution for 40 bales per month of post-industrial polyester scrap, problematic for potential end users as the scrap was multicolored and contained PVA coating. RecycleMatch provided the means to find a willing company that could reprocess the material into agglomerated plastics for use in products like car seat cushions
A company that upcycles old sweaters and suit jackets into “new” apparel wanted to find a place that would make good use of the wool scraps left over from their work. RecycleMatch provided a connection to a company that would take the 1,000 lbs/month scraps and use them in knitting starter-kits
More information can be found online at www.recyclematch.com.