-KA around us. BaklazhKA

This time we devote the article to quite young business sector: recycling of used plastic packing or PET bottles. For those unaware we’d like to explain that by PET (Poly Ethylene Terephthalate) bottles in the article we mean ordinary plastic bottles (flasks) which we see every day on shop shelves filled with mineral water, juice, dairy products, and so on.

“Baklazhka” (“bottle” in Russian) is another article from “–KA around us” series of articles. We’d like to remind you that “-KA” is the ending of names of business types in Russian language. The series includes such articles as “PirojKA” (patties production and sale), “SemechKA and others” (loose sale of sunflower seeds and sale of candies, nasvay (local tobacco product), cigarettes by the piece), “BaklazhKA” (tare collection points) and others.

PET bottles recycling

In Uzbekistan recycling industry is not as well developed as abroad. In year 2011 a project for construction of a recycling plant of a capacity of 7,000 tons per year was launched. The technology applied at the plant called “bottle-to-bottle” makes it possible to produce raw material (PET granules) for further production of PET packing for food products from 100% recycled material.

This technology has positive influence on improvement of ecological situation in the country.

We’d like to point out that this is not the only recycling technology. Besides bottles manufacturing, clothes racks, construction insulating tape, base shoes, plastic barrels, etc. are produced from recycled PET bottles.

Let us not go far from the core of the business. In our article as well as in previous ones from “-KA around us” series of articles we’d like to present the business from financial point of view. How much do people who collect used plastic bottles gain? While majority of us it is only “GARBAGE”.

According to the information we’ve gathered there are some important aspects to pay attention to in the business. For instance:

• Arrangement of collection of used PET bottles and their preparation for recycling.
• How do PET bottles get second and further lives that are possible variants of recycling.
• And the most important, what gain do “tare collectors” receive?

In this article we tried to consider all the above mentioned aspects.

Ambiguous attitude

Usually attitude to return of used tare (PET or glass bottles and so on) is diffident and disdainful, sometimes even fastidious. Many think that bottles are handled only by poor or homeless people. Nothing of the kind!

Before placing oneself into any frames it’s worth looking around. While gathering information for the article and carrying out survey we’ve found out that:

• well-to do segments of people handle used bottles as well (and often deliver tare in their expensive cars);
• students and schoolchildren handle used bottles and get additional pocket money.

Recycling

Recycling of bottles requires construction of a recycling plant. In order plant to work properly, constant supply of raw materials is essential.

In our case of PET bottles a plant needs collection points of plastic bottles.

According to data we’ve gathered processing plants buy used bottles not only from specialized collection points but from household garbage collection points of a town which all of us know as “trash dumps”.

Plant administration hires people with trucks for delivery of bottles from garbage collection points. At this point we can see that garbage which we throw out to trash dumps brings profit to someone. Further we offer you our calculation of the profit amount.

Business profitability

Depending on total volume of tare received let’s divide all collection points into small and large ones (see table below). According to collected information we can state that a small bottles collection point gathers about 120-150 kg of raw material a week. In such collection point price of 1 kg varies from 400 to 600 soums. Further all collected tare is sold to processing plants with 50% premium to the price of collection, which makes 600-800 soums average. Let’s have a look on the table and see graphically how much is the profit from collection and sale of used bottles.

Pay attention that in the table large collection points are mentioned as well. There is at least one such point in every district of our town, sometimes two or more. They concentrate on collection of PET bottles. A question arises: why is it so that price of 1 kg of bottles is higher is these points? The reason for this is that they work with larger volumes and they collect up to 3 tons of raw materials for recycling per week. They collect bottles into large bags which include up to 50 kg of bottles. Next these bags are delivered to plants in trucks. In the table you can see that compared to large collection point small one receives less profit.

Let us consider this issue from another point of view. Employees of small collection points do not accomplish any physically hard work. Moreover, they do not hire large staff that is wage costs are considerably lower. Job responsibilities of the staff include only collection and handling of used bottles. Most of their work time they wait: wait till enough amount of bottles is collected and then wait for these bottles to be taken to recycling plants.

If you still think that the income from used bottles collection is not high enough, we’d like to remind you that besides PET bottles small collection points take:

• paper for recycling;
• empties;
• cotton, etc.

If calculate consolidated returns from collection and handling of aforementioned materials, monthly income is quite high. However, as our article is devoted to PET bottles, we will not concentrate on collection and recycling of other materials.

If you still think that the income is not sufficient, keep in mind that usually each owner of a collection point has several points in different districts of a town. Hence, aggregate income is considerable.

For those interested in further “destiny” of PET bottles, earlier in the article we’ve mention the recycling process and products produced from recycled PET bottles.

If we talk about Tashkent, on its territory there are three PET bottles recycling plants are found. Further recycling includes formation of PET flakes and PET granules. At some plants once more plastic bottles are produced from PET granules. PET flakes are used for production of construction materials. However, some plants produce PET flakes and granules for export to other countries such as Russia, China, and so on.

Taking into consideration that raw materials recycling sector is quite new one to our country, we can claim that is has bright future in Uzbekistan.