Eco-Entrepreneurs Find Green Products Profitable
By Donna Gordon Blankinship
Fourteen years ago when Ray Shemanski starting buying and selling used plastic and steel drums, the economy and not the environment was the key to his success.
"Large corporations used to pay me to help them figure out how to sell their drums," Shemanki said about his experience in the disposal business. "Now I pay about $5 a barrel and sell them for $12-15." Olympic Supply of Selah, Wash., has made the move from disposal to recycling.
Since 1979, the company has sold about a quarter of a million barrels. Large orders of up to 40,000 barrels are used in industrial applications. Smaller quantities of one to five barrels become drum chairs, compost bins, rafts or docks, kids toys and utility pole protectors. Shemanski gives away lots of free ideas with his drum sales.
"It's such a humble business I'm in most people don't realize how long I've been at it," Shemanski said.
And most people don't know he's recycling. That's because environmental entrepreneurs move down many different paths in the Puget Sound area. Recycling means a lot more than aluminum and paper these days. The two goals are keeping things out of the landfill and finding a second life for the rescued items.
Entrepreneurs get involved in the first goal, but focus on the second.
Magnum Laser Systems of Seattle does a little of both. The company remanufactures toner cartridges for laserprinters. Magnum disassembles used cartridges, cleans and inspects them for defects, installs a new drum and other components and replenishes the toner.
George J. Stoulil, technical manager of the three-year-old company, says the remanufacturing process improves print quality, saves money and reduces waste. Magnum does most of its business in Washington and reported sales of about $500,000 in 1992. "This year we expect to triple that," Stoulil said about the family-owned business.
Magnum buys large quantities of cartridges and sells the rebuilt models — sometimes to the same customers. "These are cartridges that otherwise would wind up in the trash. We're probably saving 20,000 cartridges a year," Stoulil said.
The company's customers save 30 to 60 percent of the cost when they buy remanufactured cartridges instead of new ones. Prices vary, but one example of the savings is a laser cartridge that costs about $130 new or $59 remanufactured, he said.
Stoulil said about 30 million laser toner cartridges are used each year in this country, with 17 percent being recycled or remanufactured. Because the toner cartridge remanufacturing industry is only about four-years old, those numbers should continue to grow.
Another entrepreneur trying to make some green money in a computer-related industry is GreenDisk, a new Redmond company that calls itself a software recycling company. What they really do is resell used computer disks.
David Beschen had been doing consulting work in the software industry for the past 10 years when he landed the idea for this green project. He discovered that only about 30 percent of obsolete software products were being recycled when a new version replaced the old one in the store. Retailers sent the old packages back to the manufacturer, who usually sent them to the landfill.
Beschen has convinced some of those companies to give him the old disks, which he erases, checks for quality and resells to consumers. His target is to sell 12 million disks a year through national distribution to computer stores and other retailers. Consumers will save at least 10 percent on their disks, which GreenDisk will sell in packages of 10 and 50.
Software manufacturers give most of the used disks to GreenDisk for free, because the company is offering them a savings as well.
"We're taking out the trash ... and we're trying to make the trash worth something," Beschen said.
In the recycling industry, that's called closing the loop.
A business that takes a more traditional approach to closed-loop recycling is Pacific Mat Company. About 10 percent of their business is turning waste into completely new products. Morri Dightman, general sales manager, said the company makes rubber and plastic mats for specialty flooring for a range of uses from loading docks and industrial areas to animal pens, playgrounds and pools.
Pacific Mat of Kent has been in business since 1941, but moved into recycling about two years ago. Some of the items they keep out of landfills include truck tires, swimming pool liners and milk jugs.
Grinnell Industries Inc. of Bothell is creating a second life for industrial polystyrene — that's Styrofoam for lay people. Richard Grinnell says he has been working to find the best way and form in which to reuse this product for the past five years.
"We're finally making some significant breakthroughs," he said.
Thirty-five pound "styroblocks" are sold for use in roadbeds, foundation insulation, archery targets, cushions or bumpers for shipping applications, bases for mobile homes or boats in dry dock, and as floatation devices and building blocks.
Grinnell said most of his sales have been in the Pacific Northwest because of shipping costs. Another challenge for the company is consumer recognition. Although some government agencies have recognized styroblock as a useful construction material, most contractors are not yet aware of its possible applications.
"It's a very educational-intensive process that takes time," Grinnell said.
Education of consumers also is one of the major challenges for Clean Care Corp. of Tacoma, which re-refines used motor oil and antifreeze.
The company picks up used oil from car dealers, municipalities, gas stations and quick-lube shops and after a complicated refining process sends the oil back into stores as Eco-green motor oil. The American Petroleum Institute approved oil, which is blended by Lilyblad Petroleum Inc. of Tacoma, is sold at Al's Auto Supply in Western Washington at approximately the same price as major brands of new motor oil.
Benny L. Taylor, vice president of sales, said one of the goals of the company is to convince consumers that re-refined motor oil is as good as new for their cars and a lot better for the environment.
"Without (API approval) I wouldn't use it in my car, and I do," Taylor said.
Motor oil is a major pollutant, as oil changers continue to dump used oil in storm drains despite laws prohibiting the practice. In the United States, more than 260 million gallons of used oil are dumped improperly each year. More than 4 million gallons of used motor oil is dumped in Washington state each year, including 2 million gallons poured into storm drains that lead to the Puget Sound.
Re-refined oil also reduces energy consumption. It takes 2 gallons of virgin crude oil to produce 2.5 quarts of refined motor oil, and it only takes one gallon of used oil to be re-refined into 2.5 quarts.
The company also re-refines antifreeze in Tacoma, but only sells that product to fleets and has yet to enter the retail market for antifreeze. In 1992, Clean Care recycled more than 250,000 gallons of antifreeze and 2 million gallons of fuel oil.
These six companies are only a sampling of the many businesses making money on the environment. The tremendous growth of green entrepreneurs can be tracked every day on the pages of this and other business magazines and by attending the annual Northwest Regional Buy Recycled Exposition coordinated each spring by the Washington State Department of Economic Development's Clean Washington Center.