How Nationwide Waste Services Ltd makes money from Recycling Cardboard and Bauxite Topsoil

“NWS has humongous plans to increase the variety of recycled products for export. We plan to increase the awareness of the Jamaican population about the importance of recycling through advertising. We also have plans to hire more skilled and unskilled to work in the areas of marketing, machine operation and general collection of waste and recycled materials”

NWS (Nationwide Waste Services) Ltd Marlon Grant commenting on the progress of his recycling company

Making money from the recycling garbage is possible.

Already an American company is coming to Jamaica to recycle or organic waste, particularly cooking oil to make biodiesel as reported in my blog article entitled “HERO BX commercial-scale biodiesel plant - How Jamaica can recycle Cooking Oil to supply US$614.92 billion market”.  

But what of local entrepreneurs in recycling in Jamaica?

NWS (Nationwide Waste Services) Ltd is an example of a company that is doing just that 2009 as reported in the article “Nationwide waste renewal sees gold in recycling”, published November 29, 2015 by Avia Collinder, The Jamaica Observer.

 The company's CEO Marlon Grant, who has sunk some JA$16 million into the expansion of his operations, collects cardboard from the Riverton City dumps as well as other dumps across Jamaica:

1.      DLK (Double line kraft)

2.      OCC (Old Corrugated cardboard)

Located at 154 Marcus Garvey Drive in Kingston, the 10 man strong team compacts the cardboard for recycling by their main clients Corrpak Jamaica and AMG Packaging. However they branched into export, which is a recent activity started since 2014.

NWS Ltd collects garbage from the landfills under contract, using a combination of the following trucks:

1.      Garbage trucks

2.      Roll-on and roll-off trucks

Forklifts then the garbage is weighed using commercial scales before being packed into bundles onto pallets, placed into containers ready for shipping abroad. To make additional revenue, they also provide haulage service for the bauxite companies.

This is to presumably cart away waste topsoil from the bauxite extraction process, to quote Marlon Grant, owner and CEO of NWS (Nationwide Waste Services) Ltd: “We also collect and dispose of solid waste at the landfills and, additionally, provide haulage for bauxite”.

Now, they are in a unique position, as there is a demand for their recycled cardboard business model.

NWS Ltd in expansion mode thanks to DBJ - How recycling is Jamaica only way to manage our increasing waste disposal problem

The company is now in expansion mode, having recently borrowed and additional JA$5 million from the DBJ (Development Bank of Jamaica).

This is in a bid to achieve some 10% in revenues as they already have a healthy ROI (Return on Investment) of 20%, with 2015 being a good year for them, to quote NWS Ltd CEO: “....steady and stable and the demand for our products and services have been spiralling upward. Revenues have been steadily increasing this year in comparison to last year because we have increased the pool of customers, and our network of collection of used cardboard has increased”.

The DBJ is very interested in his business, as obviously, with our increasing population and waste management problems at the Riverton City dump, NWS Ltd can only grow, as NWS Ltd CEO Marlon Grant points out, quote: “The DBJ convinced me that it had a genuine interest. Furthermore the interest rate was very competitive. The loan will be used to purchase new equipment such as balers, pallet jacks and forklifts and to hire more employees to facilitate our anticipated growth”.

This means he can now expand into recycling other items such as Car tyres which were the cause of the Riverton City dump fire back in 2014 as reported in my blog article entitled “How to make Diesel and Gasoline from the Pyrolysis of Car Tyres and Plastics - Jamaican Riverton City Dump Fire Ecological Disaster solution that reduces Jamaica's Oil Bill”.

Recycling tyre and Electronic Waste – Entrepreneurs wanted as Waste set to increase as population increases

These tyres are part of the reason why the fire at the Riverton City Dump  on Wednesday March 11th 2015 burned for so long as reported in the article “Riverton dump fire spreads”, published Friday, March 13, 2015 BY KIMMO MATTHEWS Observer staff reporter, The Jamaica Observer  and “Riverton City Dump On Fire”, Published Wednesday March 11, 2015, The Jamaica Gleaner.

To date, the Riverton City dump is poorly guarded, leaving open the possibility of yet another fire at the Riverton City dump as suggested in the article “Guarding Garbage - Lack Of Security Leaves Riverton Open To Arsonists”, published Sunday November 29, 2015, The Jamaica Gleaner. 

He might even look into expanding into organic waste and even electronic waste, which the NSWMA has been pioneering successfully as noted in my blog article entitled “NSWMA's E-Waste Collection Pilot Project - Why End-of-life Policy for E-Waste Collection needed in Jamaica”.

The increasing population of Jamaica is putting pressure on the Riverton City Dumps. Being able to recycle our garbage is going to become big business in the next five years both for local entrepreneurs as well as multi-nationals, who realize there is Gold in Garbage.

Hopefully before they set the Riverton City Dump on fire again!!