Anyone doing Waste Recycling Solutions?

searcher profile

September 27, 2022

by a searcher from University of California, Berkeley in San Francisco Bay Area, CA, USA

Hello Searchfunders - Anyone here invested in, operated or searched/searching for waste recycling solutions? Could be tech based, recycling facilities, reverse logistics or any associated domain. Please drop a text below or DM me, I would love to chat.

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Reply by a searcher
from Carleton College in Leesburg, VA, USA
I spent a little time looking at renewable natural gas -- methane emitted from landfills, wastewater treatment plants, agricultural waste, and other industrial processes. Most landfills just burn off all their methane and send the resulting carbon dioxide straight into the atmosphere! (The CO2 is slightly better than the CH4.) A local landfill near me generates enough electricity with its gas from fermenting garbage to power 8,000 homes! They would be able to power more, but they didn't build the original facility large enough. Portions of that landfill that shut down decades ago are still producing a steady stream of gas.

My search went off in a different direction, but it looked like an exciting and promising industry, made more promising with federal legislation (?) and/or revised White House priorities from the past couple years. I was mainly looking at specialist engineering firms that build and maintain facilities. I still intend to return to it someday, but I have a couple other priorities first. In the meantime, I made a list of a few resources and prospects in the industry. Feel free to email me at redacted if you'd like me to send it to you.

One potential problem is that the emissions are increasingly tainted with silicon-containing compounds, probably from shampoo and other beauty products. When the compounds are burned, they essentially make very very fine sand -- which, as you can imagine, really irritates every little crack and crevice of the plant, not to mention the engineers themselves.
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Reply by an investor
from Universidade Católica Portuguesa in Lisbon, Portugal
I spent a lot of time looking at the sector and did a few deals in it in the past. My main 2 suggestions would be be careful with the margins as your input price is not necessarily linked to your output, so you might find yourself in a margin squeeze even though you have a healthy business.
Second, make sure you understand your input supply, depending on the market availability of the input those guys might have a lot of leverage against you.
Happy to chat
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