Introduction
The business will be called “Greensipi” – a plastic recycling firm that will be responsible for number of products and services. It will target three specific towns but will expand into other parts of the country after a period of three years.
The mission of this company is “To make the environment more sustainable by recycling plastics”. It will focus on the following types of materials: plastic water and soda bottles, milk containers, detergent bottles, bleach containers, medicine containers, and other PET plastics used around the house. This business will produce new plastic bottles as the main product; pipes and toys will be the secondary products.
The supply market
The supply market will be divided into three major categories: corporate bodies, educational institutions and homes. A number of companies will be identified in the three towns to provide Greensipi with recycling plastics.
These must be institutions that do not have any recycling program already. Their management should also be willing and able to support such as program in their organisation (Tullo 8).
The second category will consist of educational institutions. Primary, secondary and tertiary schools will all participate in the supply chain. School administrators will be expected to provide two types of bins in their classrooms so as to separate the plastic materials from all other forms of trash.
Learning institutions are a great source of the raw materials in this business because there are so many people who use them in those locations. Furthermore, students tend to follow instructions once they have been told to do so by their tutors and administrators.
Lastly, the supplies list will also be made of people who live in residential areas. There will be a number of communities that will be chosen for this purpose. Homes in those areas will be informed about the recycling program and will also be provided with bins.
The process
Greensipi will offer a combination of services that include: collection, de-manufacturing and manufacturing. Collection services will involve setting up collection centres in various parts of the chosen towns (Bridgewater 3). De-manufacturing will involve separation of the materials prior to the manufacturing process. Manufacturing will involve the creation of new plastics from older ones.
In order to ensure that the program has a diverse array of customers, Greensipi will be carrying out a campaign in certain identified areas. It will hold a meeting with participating employees in corporate institutions, students in school and residents in identified neighbourhoods.
Since neighbourhood meetings may not generate a positive response from those concerned, it will be crucial to do door-to-door visitations where leaflets will be handed out to the members. Permission will also be sought from the management of the institutions prior to these campaigns.
They will also be urged to support Greensipi in the purchase or installation of the bins. Plastic collection bins will also be given to these collaborating parties so that they can empty out their recyclables conveniently. Those bins will also be well labelled so as to ascertain that members do not mix them up.
The collection process will involve getting the plastics from industries, homes, and waste collection centres after placement of the plastics in large collection containers. This will be a service component that must be done by specialised transporters under the company’s management (Biddle 14).
The de-manufacturing process will also be known as the plastics handling section. This one will sort and separate the various types of products that will have been collected. Some plastics may not require manufacture; these ones will simply be cleaned and packed. Conversely, others will be moved to the next step.
Manufacturing will involve the reclamation of plastics so as to palletise the products and then convert them to new commodities. In other words, the first step shall commence with baling of the consumer products into compact discs.
Once this has been done, it will be followed by another process of shredding them into tiny flakes. As soon as those products are created, the flakes will be washed. The flakes are then melted and extruded to become pellets. New plastics will then be created from the pellets. This step will culminate in the sale of the end product to different buyers.
Products (Before and after)
The raw materials that will be chosen for this recycling process will be made of polyethylene terepthalate (PETE/PET). These plastics are quire easy to recycle and are in use by numerous people around the country (Patel 240).
Examples of such plastics include soda bottles, water bottles, plastic medical containers and other common plastic containers that are used around the house, office or school. PET plastics consist of two categories; the first one is made of the latter mentioned plastics while the second one consists of: milk containers, shampoo containers, detergent bottles and bleaching containers.
After completion of the recycling process, the plastics that will have been derived from plastic water bottles and soda bottles will be used to make other bottles. On the other hand, the ones that came from the second category of heavier PETE will be used to make plastic pipes and toys.
There will be raw materials, intermediary products and final products. Plastic toys, plastic bottles and plastic pipes will be the final products. On the other hand, intermediary products will consist of PET flake and HDPE.
PET flake will be the raw material fro the manufacture of soft drib plastic bottles while HDPE will be the second raw material for use in the process of making plastic pipes and plastic bottles. The initial raw materials have already been mentioned in the previous section.
The consumer market
The final market will consist of a series of end users. First, toy consumers will be targeted. It is likely that mothers will form a huge section of the market as they will purchase these toys for their children. Some marketing will be done in order to get the message to them.
The toys will be quite endearing to the parents because they will be advertised as 100% recycled material. It is likely that environmentally-conscious consumers will be attracted to this aspect of the product (Watson 18).
Pipe retail sellers will be the main target for these types of products. Hardware shops and supermarkets that sell their commodities to final consumers will be the main distributors in the system. The pipes will also be marketed as environmentally friendly products.
Lastly, beverage manufacturers will be the other consumers for the companies’ plastic bottles. Therefore, institutions will be the main category of buyers covered. Organisations that value green production will be the main targets. The company will start with smaller beverage packers then work its way up to larger ones after it has been established.
Value proposition
There are a number of value offerings that will make Greensipi’s products highly marketable. First, the products will be produced at very low costs. This will be achieved by using a plastic recycling system that minimises most of the variables involved.
The proper balance of energy costs, man power, occupation space and production rate will be manipulated in order to create the most cost efficient manufacturing process there is (Page 99). The business will also capitalise on the availability of technology to make the most of these factors. In this regard, it will be necessary to invest in that component so as to grow the business.
It has been shown that a wide number of manufacturers are looking for products that are environmentally friendly, so most of them will be quite willing to purchase the products from Greensipi. It will not just be enough to produce plastics at low costs; it will be crucial to recover those costs and get a reasonable profit.
The products will therefore be competitively priced because they have been recycled and because the manufacturing process will be done in a cost effective manner as well. Therefore, cost conscious and environmentally conscious manufacturers and consumers will respond positively to this message.
Conclusion
Greensipi will be creating value for a number of stakeholders in the plastics business. It will supply cheap plastics to small and medium sized manufacturers. It will be offering high quality and affordable pipes and toys to consumers.
Furthermore, it will be meeting the eco-needs of the selected markets. Manufacturers are now moving towards eco-friendly production processes so they will need Greensipi’s products. Conversely, consumers are also conscious of their purchase decisions as they want to contribute towards a sustainable environment.
Works Cited
Biddle, Mike. “We Can Recycle Plastics.” TED 11 Oct. 2011: Al.
Bridgewater, Alan. The Self Sufficiency Handbook: A Complete Guide to Greener Living. New Jersey: Skyhorse Publishing, 2007. Print.
Page, Candace. Waste District Raises Recycling Fees. Chicago: Burlington Free Press, 2007. Print.
Patel, Almitra. “Plastics Recycling and Need for Biopolymers.” International Society of Environmental Botanists 9 (2003): 240-245. Print.
Tullo, Alexander. “Plastics Recycling Industry Starving for Materials.” Chemical and Engineering News 5 Oct. 2011: Al.
Watson, Tom. “Where Can We Put All Those Plastics?” Seattle Times 2 Jun. 2007: Al.