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July 2007 - Posts
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Recycling is the process of reusing natural resources or man made resources which slows down consumption and subsequent depletion. Although many people and organizations are doing a lot to encourage recycling, most people are not doing enough. If everyone done there part then not only would the earth’s limited resources last longer, but the earth as a whole and everyone on it would benefit as a result.
Recycling Saves Trees and Wildlife Habitat – Around 95% of forest areas in the USA have been cut down, and around 50% worldwide. This is only going to get worse as regions of the world become more commercialized and as shortages increase the value that can be generated from cutting them down. With the decrease in forest areas, wildlife that previously lived in forest areas has nowhere to go and as such wildlife dies as a result.
Recycling Cuts Toxic Chemical Consumption and Slows Down Global Warming - Toxic chemicals can be reused from already consumed products meaning that the need to cause further harm from their creation can be reduced and even avoided completely in the case of many chemical products. The creation of products which involve using natural resources such as fossil fuels that burn carbon dioxide is not needed for a large amount of products. For example, glass can easily be recycled but is not being done as much as it could because it is not as cost-effective for manufacturers.
Recycling Can Help Curb Water Pollution – Water pollution is caused by a variety of factors, however the most prominent of these is in the manufacturing process where water is used to help make products, and it is then polluted before being put back into water reservoirs, lakes and the ocean. This is, for the most part, an unnecessary evil which could be stopped and reduced by using removed parts of the manufacturing process through using already created raw materials and manufacturer’s materials which form the essence of products that have already been consumed.
Recycling Stops the Continued Growth of Landfill Sites – Landfill areas give off chemicals into the air and pollute water that is under the ground as well as causing acid rain from their evaporation. This is something which could be stopped by putting less chemicals and pollutants into the ground, and instead reusing them to make products which humans consume and use.
Recycling Creates Prosperity in the Economy – Recycling creates new jobs through adding new dimensions to the economy as well as creating work for specialist companies that consult on recycling; waste management companies who split waste into reusable and non reusable parts; and increased margins for companies that use finite resources. In a study conducted by the Conversation Commission it was found that in 12 Southern States of the United States over $18Billion was created by the recycling industry alone. Considering the small fraction of the earth’s population that accounts for, recycling creates opportunities world wide and also reduces the inherent state costs of dealing with pollution, which in turn increases the amount of money that the private sector and individuals have and can potentially generate as a result.
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Recycling helps to save forests from depleting, increases the quality of our water and stimulates the economy. For those reasons and many more it is important that everyone does what they can to ensure that they are doing their bit for mother earth. Following is an explanation of how you can get started with recycling and give something back as well as improve your quality of your life and the quality of life for your children and your children’s children. Many people say that they don’t do their bit towards recycling because their effort on their own is not enough to make a difference, however this is simply not true. If everyone had that attitude, where would be?
Organize Your Waste
Rather than sticking your rubbish into one central place, it is important that you categorize waste in order to recycle it. You should place glass in one place, tins/cans in one place, plastics in one place, compost in one place and have another place for cardboard and paper/newspaper.
Find out about Recycling Facilities Where you Live
You should find out about the facilities available in your county. Depending on where you live, you may find it is harder or easier to recycle your waste. Some places will have a dedicated pick-up to come and take your waste away, while other areas will require that you drive a substantial distance in order to drop it off. Either way, it is important that you do your bit for society.
Recycling Tins/Cans
When recycling tins and cans you should firstly remove all the paper from the outside and try to flatten any sharp edges to limit any risk of you being cut. You should then place all tins and cans in a dedicated waste bin.
Plastic
Plastic wrappings and other plastic items should be treated with caution when recycling them. It is best if you take measures to stop any animals being hurt from plastic items. This includes breaking open drinks-cans rings so that an animal cannot get their head trapped in it, as well as ripping open plastic bags so they are just in the form of a single sheet.
Compost
Compost should be used to enrich your soil in your garden. Many people have a compost heap in their garden. Once you have left the compost for a period of a few weeks, it is now ready to treat the soil in your garden. If you do not have a large garden then you could consider asking your neighbors, friends and family members if they could make use of it.
Paper/Newspaper
Paper and newspaper is generally the easiest item to recycle because it is the most sought after item. After you read your old newspapers and magazines you should place them inside a dedicated container so that they can later be recycled. You should be especially careful not to place any other items into this container as it will cause problems for the recycler later on.
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Away from Wall Street and the stock market, investment professionals understand that although they can spread their bets across sectors and industries it is hard to distance oneself from the overall economic climate of a country. That is of course unless you invest in commodities such as gold. The reason for this is that gold, like currency has the same value anywhere around the world, and a value that is generally immune from economic forces such as interest rates and employment. The use of recycled gold is not just for jewelry as many amateurs believe. Gold is used in many products, such as satellites for example, because of the unique qualities that it has. Gold is naturally corrosion resistant; however it is also very soft. This makes gold an ideal candidate for being used as an alloy or compound where its qualities can be mixed with another metals to yield strong results. For those reasons, as well as its aesthetic qualities, gold is always needed and its price is generally affected by both supply and demand alone. The reason for this is that it is needed in countries around the world, so only an overall drop in the world’s economy can have an affect.
Because gold is heavily commoditized, this means that scrap gold has a value based on the weight of gold that you have. For example, an old necklace made of gold does not just have value in terms of what someone may pay for the necklace. It also has value in terms of what someone would be willing to pay for the weight of gold that it is made of. For those reasons alone, pawn brokers and cash day advance companies are happy to give gold a value, without being worried about their ability to resell it in jewelry form. You see, gold is also a highly liquid market. What does this mean? Well when a stock broker buys shares in a company he does not just consider value based factors, he also considers how liquid a stock is. This mean, how often it is traded. A stock which is not traded very often will usually be much more difficult to sell when it comes to a time that one would need too. Because gold is bought and sold all the time, there is never any difficulty in being able to sell it.
For those reasons and more, businesses and high net worth individuals have invested in gold for the past 5000 years. Now buying recycled gold can have more value because an individual can pay less for the gold, because of the perceived cost and inconvenience of turning it back into pure form. That is where the market is, and as something which can be sold easily it is a business which is easy to scale when you have all the fundamentals in place. It is also the case that because everyone is not aware of the commoditized and liquid market that exists, people you are buying from might not know how easy it will be for you to make money they could otherwise make.
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The scrap metal business is tough for dealers and agents. When they order scrap for clients they have to wait around one month before it arrives and only then can they charge the client. However, they have to complete payment for the stock before the order is sent out, which means that they are only limited to selling as much value as they currently have as their cash balance on their ledger account. This problem acts as a limitation to most businesses that operate in this space, because the can only ever grow their business at the rate at which their profit grows. And even then, that means no profit can be removed from the business; it must be kept and reinvested. For these reasons alone, the scrap metal business can be difficult because you need to have a lot of money to get started, and you will have liquidity problems to tend too as well as other issues such as sales, marketing and order fulfillment.
Despite that, there is a solution that most scrap dealers are failing to leverage to their advantage. Often they will want finance and go to the bank in search of a loan, however when they do they will be disappointed. Your average bank manager will not be savvy as to the operation of a scrap business and will not have anywhere near the knowledge necessary to ascertain the value that you can create. A bank manager will generally want evidence of successful trading for 3 years, and will also want to see that you have a suitable amount of assets or collateral that they can recoup in the case that the business is not able to keep up payments. For those reasons, this form of financing is generally unsuccessful, however that does not mean someone should give up.
Their next step may be to look for venture capital: however a scrap metal dealership is only likely to gain private equity finance in the form of angel funding from friends and family. The reason for this is that VCs look to invest in companies that have an exciting idea, a unique angle or some form of disruptive technology which is defensible from competition. You may get private equity if you have some trading history under your belt; however you are generally best to consider a bank loan at that point.
One thing that most businesses fail to consider is looking for purchase order financing. This will allow you to scale your business fast, not sacrifice equity and not have to worry about failing to deliver the volume of sales necessary to make interest repayments. This works by initially having your customer place a purchase order, you then go to your bank with this purchase order and ask that they pay the supplier or give the supplier a letter of credit. Then you get paid from your customer and pay the bank. This means that you only have to worry about closing purchase orders, and you can continue to grow your business.
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While there are many disadvantages and problems that are caused by not recycling, this article provides information on the benefits of recycling to date and the positive outcome that we have experienced as a result of businesses and individuals who have decided to get behind recycling for personal and less selfish reasons. On one level the cost of recycling is actually much less than incineration, land fills and waste collection meaning that the more we shift towards recycling the more the world can benefit as a whole through reduced taxation, meaning funds are spent in a better way which will ultimately benefit everyone. According to information provided by the Nation Recycling Coalition many cities are starting to change their perception on recycling, years after claiming that it would be a drain on their economy. New York is one of the more prominent examples. City decision makers felt years back that recycling would be a $40 Mil drain on the economy, however after speaking with experts they re asserted their position and found that they could save $20 Mil with a carefully planned and well executed recycling campaign. Now local councils are trying to increase people’s propensity to recycle with new measures being taken to charge people for as much waste they throw away. Now this really means that people can save big by turning towards recycling, and they have further incentives when they are actually being charged for the burden on the economy that they create. At the moment, recycling is responsible for 1.1 Mil jobs in the USA, with that number expected to rise as more governments get behind recycling. Already creating around $37 Million in salaries annually, we can be in no doubt that recycling has a positive effect in that regard. As well as creating jobs directly, recycling also creates many jobs indirectly in the form of private sector contracts, innovation and subsequent revenues and employment. For those reasons alone recycling has certainly had a positive impact. Recycling and composting now moves more than double the waste away from landfill sites that it did 10 years ago. Now 70 Million tons of previously useless waste is now put to use and being resold as products and put to use in our gardens up and down the country. To give an indication of how that impacts us; for every one ton of paper that is recycled rather than thrown away, we can expect to save 15 trees from being cut down. And another great indicator is that the energy consumed from creating the glass that can be saved from recycling one glass bottle is enough to light a single bulb for 4 hours straight. Recycling is also reducing most categories of water and air pollutants, so as we recycle more, as we are doing at the moment, we are reducing the amount of pollutants that would otherwise end up in the water that we drink and the air that we breathe. So far, our recycling efforts are working well, and a great sign that as our recycling efforts scale, we will all benefit.
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