Who doesn't need a little extra money these days? Pretty soon you may need to look no further than your trash can. This week, Business Week ran an article on the recycling and waste - an area of our economy that is booming despite the loses being felt in many other industries. Green collar jobs and green collar crime are on the rise, mostly in the area of how to use trash. VC and PE firms are tripping over themselves to invest in new trash technologies, throwing a million ideas at the wall and hoping that a couple of them stick. You really want to make some money in trash? Figure out the most efficient way to sort it. As with so many other projects that require a clear, concise reason for being, the value of trash is in the edit. And there isn't a top of the line sorting system out there that does away with ever form of human sorting. What we need is a WALL-E. Actually, we need thousands of them. And some people still think that cartoons are only for entertaining kids! Who knew those folks over at Pixar were moonlighting environmental engineers?
2 comments:
I just had this conversation with a colleague a few weeks ago. I was saying that I recycle as much as I can, but I really need a better process because what I put out each week is a mess and someone needs to sort it in order to make any sense of it (or create any value out of it).
There are lots of recycling companies listed at http://www.greencollareconomy.com but I think you've hit on a major stumbling block in the road from trash to riches.
Hi fueldog,
Thanks for your comment. Let's hope we can do something about indeed going from trash to riches - lord knows we need to get rid of this garbage and improve our economic situation. Cash for trash seems like a perfect combo. Cheers!
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