The essential elements of a Recycling Industry Feasibility Study

A feasibility study is an analysis that takes all of a project's relevant factors into account—including economic, technical, legal, and scheduling considerations—to ascertain the likelihood of completing the project successfully. Project managers use feasibility studies to discern the pros and cons of undertaking a project before they invest a lot of time and money into it.

The Goals and Importance of feasibility studies are as follows:

• To understand thoroughly all aspects of a project, concept, or plan
• To become aware of any potential problems that could occur while implementing the project
• To determine if, after considering all significant factors, the project is viable—that is, worth taking-up.
  

In this post we will look at how to do a project feasibility study of a recycling project. We will take the example of a tire recycling project and plastic recycling.

There are three types of recycling, known as primary, secondary and tertiary. Primary recycling means that the recyclable material/product is recovered and reused without being changed in any way and usually for the very same purpose. Secondary recycling means that the material/product is reused in some other way without reprocessing, while tertiary recycling refers to a process that involves chemical altering of the material/product in order to make it reusable.

The example of the tire recycling feasibility is tertiary recycling. In this case it is wise to use patented sustainable technology to recover carbon black from end-of-life tires (ELT) for re-integration with virgin carbon black in new tires. It is called continuous process technology with energy self-sufficient design that will be implemented with machines from leading global manufacturers.

It solves two problems – the increasing problem of disposing of end-of-life tires, and the reduction in carbon emission footprint for the manufacture of new tires. The production of every ton of recovered carbon black compared to virgin carbon black results in a reduction of 2 tons in CO2. The third most important aspect of Feasibility Analysis is the financial viability of a project. If the project returns above 15% after 2 years period, then a recycling project may make sense for the investor. The feasibility study should also highlight key risks such as market, environment and regulatory risks as well as the market opportunity for the project.

Another recycling example that we will consider is plastic recycling.  Before any plastic waste is recycled, it needs to go through five different stages so that it can be further used for making various types of products.

• Sorting: It is necessary that every plastic item is separated according to its make and type so that it can be processed accordingly in the shredding machine.
• Washing: Once the sorting has been done, the plastic waste needs to be washed properly to remove impurities such as labels and adhesives. This enhances the quality of the finished product.
• Shredding: After washing, the plastic waste is loaded into different conveyer belts that run the waste through the different shredders. These shredders tear up the plastic into small pellets, preparing them for recycling into other products.
• Identification and Classification of Plastic: After shredding, a proper testing of the plastic pellets is conducted in order to ascertain their quality and class.
• Extruding: This involves melting the shredded plastic so that it can be extruded into pellets, which are then used for making different types of plastic products.
• There are different processes of recycling such as Heat Compression and Monomer. Depending upon the project requirements the analysis should consider the right process that needs to be selected.
  

Investors will always want to know the benefits of the project. Therefore it is essential to highlight some of the key benefits of the recycling process that includes reducing plastic waste which is 90% of municipal waste, Conservation of Energy and Natural Resources and clears landfill space as plastic waste is accumulated on land that should be used for other purpose.

Apart from process and benefits, the other core factors as mentioned in tire recycling like risks, market opportunity and returns should also be included in the feasibility study.

Conclusion

Recycling is one strategy for end-of-life waste management of wide range of products that includes electronics waste, medical waste etc. It makes increasing sense economically as well as environmentally and recent trends demonstrate a substantial increase in the rate of recovery and recycling of wastes. These trends are likely to continue, but some significant challenges still exist from both technological factors and from economic or social behavior issues relating to the collection of recyclable wastes, and substitution for virgin material. Therefore when assigning a feasibility study services work to a consultant all these aspects should be taken into consideration.

Recycling of a wider range of waste products will further enable improvement in recovery rates and diversion from landfills.