What kind of operation you are running.
WHAT FORMS EXIST
Household and commercial waste collection Industrial and construction waste Recyclable material collection and aggregation Sorting and processing facilities Recycling and reprocessing
Specialist waste: electronic, medical, hazardous
Equipment supply: bins, containers, vehicles
WHY THE DISTINCTION MATTERS
Regulation, equipment and economics differ substantially.
WHAT COLLECTION IS ECONOMICALLY
A logistics business: routes, vehicles and density of customers.
WHAT RECYCLING IS
A commodity business: buying material, processing it, and selling into markets whose prices move.
WHY THAT MATTERS
Recycling revenue depends on commodity prices you do not control.
WHAT AGGREGATION IS
Buying small quantities and consolidating them into saleable volumes.
WHAT ALL SHARE
Regulatory obligations Public health and environmental consequences Worker safety risks Dependence on vehicles and equipment
WHAT DETERMINES COLLECTION PROFITABILITY
Customer density along routes Collections per vehicle per day
Collection rate: whether customers pay
Disposal cost
WHY DENSITY DOMINATES
Driving between distant customers consumes the day.
WHAT MOST OPERATORS UNDERESTIMATE
Non-payment, and disposal cost.
WHAT TO TREAT THIS CATEGORY AS
Operational guidance, with regulatory requirements verified with the relevant authorities.
