Unlike Western countries, where garbage is effectively processed, in Russia all this volume goes to landfills, where it remains for decades, polluting the environment. The lack of a culture for sorting and disposing of even the most hazardous wastes, such as, for example, mercury lamps, batteries, medicines, only exacerbates the current situation. Only a small part - no more than 5% - goes to waste incineration plants, which, in fact, pollute the environment almost more than landfills themselves.
Of course, our country does not stand still. At the end of 2014, the President of the Russian Federation signed a package of amendments to the law on production and consumption waste, which approved the disposal fee, as well as toughened requirements for the use of waste, in particular, a ban on the disposal of waste that did not lose consumer properties was introduced.
In the ideal case, the garbage is subject to almost complete recycling with the aim of recycling the resulting materials. This is exactly what happens in Europe - up to 80% of solid waste is disposed of there. With proper processing, almost all of this volume can be reused. This means that by selling recycled garbage, you can earn good money.
Compost can be obtained from organic waste and used as fertilizer. Used automobile oil and other liquids can be converted into biological products and physiologically active compounds. From recycled paper and cardboard, it is possible to produce paper and cardboard, from polymeric materials - polymers. And so on.
In general, all waste management can be divided into several stages: collection, transportation, sorting, processing (disposal, storage). Often, enterprises in this industry have a narrow specialization at some stage. This is logical, since the creation of an integrated organization for the collection, sorting and disposal of garbage not only requires huge capital investments, but also organizationally difficult.
Figure 1. MSW structure in Russia
In addition, this business area is perhaps one of the most corrupt in our country, and the market has been divided for a long time and for a long time. Garbage collection and landfill in landfills is the most common way to get rid of it today. Here, garbage collection companies have been working for years working in the same city territory or with the same industrial enterprises. According to some estimates, the profitability of such a business reaches 20%. However, including for this reason, it is practically impossible for a new player to enter this market.
Garbage sorting in itself is hardly of interest from the point of view of entrepreneurship - at least because the main consumer of this service is the processing companies, which in Russia are still very, very few. Thus, we come to the logical conclusion that the sorting and processing complex can be the most profitable. And if after these words the imagination draws the territory, built up with multi-storey industrial buildings, with conveyor belts, railway access lines and so on, then in fact everything is much more prosaic. We will talk about how to organize an enterprise for the collection and recycling of garbage.
First of all, it is necessary to decide whether we restrict ourselves to sorting and processing, or try to cover all the links of the chain, ensuring the collection of garbage directly from its source. As mentioned above, this market is divided and cannot be redistributed. However, you can find your own source that will provide the company with a small but stable amount of material. Such a source could be a cottage village, of which many are currently under construction; it may be an industrial enterprise - just opened or already operating. In the second case, strong arguments will be required in order to convince the management of the enterprise to abandon the already existing relations with the service organization. Nevertheless, working with an industrial enterprise is more profitable, because will be able to provide our company with a stable volume of waste of a certain fraction, on which it is possible to build specialization. And specialization, as we understand it, can reduce costs. Actually, the search for the source, the collection and transportation of waste from it is not a costly business: one or two containers for collection and a truck for its transportation will be required. Transportation costs can be reduced by using a press at the collection point, if the material collected allows this.
If we are not interested in organizing the supply of material directly from the source, we will focus directly on sorting and disposal. Here we return to the issue of specialization. It can be approached from two opposite sides: from the processed material or from a source of waste.
The most common material for processing today is PET packaging, that is, ordinary plastic bottles for drinks, sunflower oil, etc. But you can practically process anything on this business - from cars to wood, from consumer electronics to paper. Naturally, the more complex the initial product, the more complicated the technology for its disposal. We talked about specialization at the source above - it can be a factory, a shopping center or a cottage village. The first gives one or two main fractions, the second two - a significantly larger assortment.
The most simple and affordable waste disposal technologies include pressing and grinding. Actually, they can be used both individually and sequentially in a full technological cycle: crusher, sorting line, press, storage hopper, magnet.
The equipment is selected according to the type of garbage and the required performance. For example, a press for aluminum and other non-ferrous metals, which allows pressing, for example, cans from drinks, will cost about 100 thousand rubles. A press for wool and rags, with which you can compress the waste of spinning production, has a higher cost - about 250 thousand. A press for briquetting PET containers and waste paper costs from 180 thousand rubles. Such a press gives a finished briquette that meets the requirements for acceptance by pulp and paper mills. More serious industrial presses of Western manufacturers have a cost one to two orders of magnitude higher. For example, a second-hand German semi-automatic horizontal press will cost 46, 000 euros, and a two-shaft Austrian shredder will cost 26, 000 euros.
Various types of crushers and shredders are designed for grinding waste, which are also selected depending on the type of material being processed, productivity and the required degree of grinding. The cost of domestic-made crushers for polymers, foam rubber, sintepon, fabrics, glass today is 90-100 thousand rubles.
Some suppliers offer ready-made universal lines with programmed management for processing a wide range of solid waste, including everything up to conveyors, protective fences, etc. The cost of such a line with installation will be approximately 5 million rubles.
There is also a mass of specialized equipment - for processing electronic circuit boards (machines for removing components from circuit boards, vibration tables, hammer crushers), packet tearing machines, various extruders and granulators, dryers for organic fraction and much more. Manufacturers and distributors of such equipment also offer comprehensive solutions depending on the planned direction of the enterprise, their cost is announced upon request. It should be expected that for a more or less serious line, it will be at least 3-4 million rubles.
There are more unconventional ways to make money on waste. For example, landfill gas processing. At the moment in Russia there is at least one such plant founded by a Swedish company. The principle of the plant’s operation is relatively simple: gas is collected through the wells from the “body” of the landfill in a furnace for burning it, during which electricity is generated. The plant itself is a few mobile buildings, "roaming" in a landfill from an exhausted gas source to a new one. According to approximate estimates, the energy produced by the plant is enough to power the city with a population of 50 thousand people. Of course, such an enterprise will require more investments than a sorting and recycling line - such projects are beneficial only in the long term, especially given the imperfection of Russian legislation in the field of environmental supervision.
Depending on the type of recyclable waste, various requirements are set forth in the SanPiN for the territories and premises. As a rule, they are all quite tough, because the processing organization should not pollute the atmosphere and soil, do not dispose of wastewater, have high fire safety indicators, etc. Perhaps this can be called one of the main obstacles to opening such a business.
If it was possible to sort out the premises or territory, then licensing of activities will be required. According to the legislation, the collection, use, neutralization, transportation and disposal of waste of hazard class I-IV are subject to licensing (class I is extremely hazardous waste that causes irreversible damage to the environment; these include, for example, vinyl chloride, lead oxide, polonium, plutonium, mercury, hydrogen fluoride, etc.). Accumulation of waste of any hazard class, as well as activities related to the collection, use, neutralization, transportation and disposal of waste of hazard class V are not subject to licensing. The licensing procedure is carried out by Rostekhnadzor, and the duration of its implementation can reach 3-5 months.
As for the profitability of the “garbage” business, according to experts, the sorting and processing line can pay off in a period of two to five years. The important factors ensuring profitability are: a slowly but steadily growing demand for recyclables and a fairly low level of risk due to solid tariffs for waste disposal from municipalities. And, of course, the extremely low level of competition in this area.
Of the difficulties an entrepreneur expects here is a collision with a bureaucratic apparatus, often corrupt. If your region still has potential competitors, be prepared for the fact that they will try their best to prevent you from entering the market.
Denis Miroshnichenko
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08/18/2019