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What Equipment Will I Need For a Mid-Size Business
- This topic has 5 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 3 years ago by
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Hi All,
I’m looking to start a business centered around recycling plastic. I’m approaching this as a full-time start-up business so I need to know what equipment you have used in order to run your project.
Please don’t leave anything out that you have used or think may be useful.
I already have a list of:
– Gallon tubs for shredded plastic
– oxygen masks
– welding gloves
– sanders (table, handheld, and paper)
– Large rolling bins for unshredded waste
– Table Saw
– Power tools
– sewing machine
– Iron
– shredding machine
– extrusion machine
– injection machine
– compression machine
Thank you so much!
@thereallemccoy
My recommendations would be to start small. There is a lot to learn with these 4 machines. I would get a fulltime paying job and do this on the side until you build this up. Find you 1 product to produce and build that machine along with the shredder. Start in as cheap and small of space as possible. Best of luck! Building all of these machines yourself will take a lot of time and money.
@thereallemccoy Have you done any financial planning? What is your breakeven analysis? what through put can you do with the machines? what are your margins? what products will you sell? This is only a tiny fraction of the questions that need to be answered. I would agree to start small and have another income coming in, you need to test your ideas to see which one is a winner. I have found that the time consuming part is getting the labels off the plastic and that is a cost I didn’t forsee when I started. I am now up and running (barely) but it took at least 12 months to even to get close to answering some of the questions. Just start by building the machines and then start to experiment. One thing you can do to start to make an income is to sell the flake or make into a granulate for plastic companies. This is called feedstack and it is hard to get good feedstock. Good Luck
Question, and please forgive for my naiveté as I’m new just now to the site and clicked through to here first, but what would the costs for the list of recycling equipment be from the list above,approximately, various tools, etc., aside. I know that will be different depending on where you are in the world. I’m in California so I’m sure it’ll be 40% more. HA! Again, sorry, these types of questions are probably here on the site elsewhere once I do some discovery. I am, however, glad to have read the comments above so I don’t do anything rash at my full-time job. Ha!
I really can imagine that the labels are very time consuming to get rid of as their seems to be no equipment for smaller businesses. When it comes to plastic waste it’s either, scrub with your hands or buy a 2 tonne, machine.
What solutions have you found to be efficient when it comes to removing labels?
I have done experiments with oil based products, soaps and detergents, chemical based products and I have found that the label is easily removed but the glue residue is still on the plastic. I found a chemical called toluene is best but it is a petrochemical and if you read some posts in here there are other solutions its just what I have found to work best for me.I do think that there is a better way but i haven’t found it yet as toluene is a harsh chemical and dangerous. As for washing the plastic you can use an old beaten up cement mixer if you need to do a larger amount of plastic.You could also modify a washing machine. I used and old cement mixer before it died on me and will be inventing a washing machine system where i can spray and dry in the same process. I am yet to do this but will be looking at it in about August. I need to focus on other projects first. If you search the forums there are other solutions.
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