Advice selling a waste collection business

[Suze1202]

Hi all
I started a waste management business. Bought the tipper (Vauxhall Movano) 90 boxes of 200 printed bags that holds 8kg to sell to businesses, got the phone number and licenses but then nothing! Van Insurance was too much for us as we hadn’t got any customers yet

Would like to sell the whole lot as a package but not sure how to go about it.

Please help!

Many thanks

 

[fisicx]

Sorry to be all negative but there is nothing to sell. Apart from the van.

 

[Suze1202]

Sorry to be all negative but there is nothing to sell. Apart from the van.

Thanks for your response. Not sure what to do with the bags tbh. Cost 2k and truck was 13k

 

[Chris Ashdown]

are you a ltd company if so contact you accountant as they may be company assets

 

[fisicx]

Thanks for your response. Not sure what to do with the bags tbh. Cost 2k and truck was 13k

Bags have zero value unfortunately. Rather than rubbish collection why not do general shifting and moving?

 

[Gecko001]

There has a been a few people who have visited this forum in recent years who have found it difficult to start a rubbish collection business firm. It seems to a be a sector that is very difficult to enter, especially if you are a small business.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

It seems to a be a sector that is very difficult to enter

It isn't difficult to start, but there are lots of hurdles to jump and, as the OP notes, costs that can be planned for but always appear to be unforeseen!

 

[Gecko001]

The OP seems to have covered most things, such as insurance, marketing, materials, equipment, but just cannot get customers. I assume that they have the right licences as well and somewhere to dump the rubbish. I think the quantities of rubbish that the OP's ie. 8kg could be the problem. There is just not the market for it perhaps.

 

[fisicx]

The OP seems to have covered most things, such as insurance, marketing, materials, equipment, but just cannot get customers.

I think the marketing was the main problem. And expecting customers to pay for the rubbish bags.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

We know nothing about the area, clients, marketing plans etc.

Was the OP selling bags for a few quid and then charging for pickup or were they charging £10 a bag with free pickup?

Were they speaking to businesses or residential?

Was their target area a small village, a town or a city?

It all makes a difference.

 

[Newchodge]

The OP seems to have covered most things, such as insurance, marketing, materials, equipment, but just cannot get customers. I assume that they have the right licences as well and somewhere to dump the rubbish. I think the quantities of rubbish that the OP's ie. 8kg could be the problem. There is just not the market for it perhaps.

The OP states they cannot meet the vehicle insurance.

 

[MikeJ]

There's a few companies around here that offer rubbish collection, but they all seem to be interested in scrap metal. If you've an old washing machine or similar and get it to the edge of a garden, they'll take it free of charge.

 

[Gecko001]

As far as I can see, rubbish collection is a mucky business and the firms who do it are the traditional firms who go by the old saying, "where there is muck, there is money.". Many of them have been around for decades, and some are family businesses handed down from father to son (or from father to daughter in the case of a firm I have dealt with in the past). They are the scrapyards demolition firms and skip hire firms. Some of the more recent companies have huge contracts for recycling for the local authorities.

In other words, the OP has a lot of very very experienced competitors.,who no the waste business inside out.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

I dont understand the small 8kg packets they appear to be tiny bags for what, what was the intended market, most businesses seem to have the very large plastic bins that the rubbish collector's collect on large automatic lorries like the dustmen/ garbage disposable operators

 

[Frimley111R]

EFA "where there's muck, there's brass."

 

[Buryblue]

I used to use the services of a small independent waste management company, and they were brilliant, far better than dealing with the big players in the market.
I hadn’t done much research on them initially until I was spooked by a story about another local company illegally disposing of waste. When I looked into the one I was using, everything checked out fine, but I discovered they were subcontracted by a larger company that didn’t actually cover my region.
Perhaps you could approach other waste management companies and offer to provide services for them in areas they don’t cover. It might be a way to get your business moving without having to find customers directly at first.