Objective
Over the past ten weeks, a recycling project took place. The requirement of this assignment was to collect and recycle different kinds of household items from the trash. Various options were given to select from and make a research report on it. In equal quantity plastic and metal was collected to complete the assignment.
After collecting all the recyclable items, it was required to find out their market value and to sell them. So, that one can differentiate that how much is the difference between the real product and the recyclable waste.
In the first week five plastic cups were collected, which were kept in the storage area. In the second week, six tin cans of a carbonated beverage were collected to recycle. In the third week, five plastic water bottles were collected.
In the fourth week, four metal candle stands were collected. In the fifth week, seven plastic hair combs were collected. In the sixth week, four side panels of a window were collected which are made of aluminum metal.
In the seventh week, five plastic tin-tin toys were collected for this assignment. In the eight week, three frying pans were collected which are found almost in every house. In the ninth week, twelve plastic bowls were collected, which are found in every house. In the last week of this assignment, six metal strainers were collected.
Collection of Data
After all the items were collected, it was necessary to keep an account of them. All of the items were arranged in sequenced manner and then the counting was done. All the items were of different sizes and types in the inventory.
Management Skills
Management of the storage area was necessary to complete this assignment. Otherwise, there was a possibility that the recyclable items might get mixed up and then it will become a problem to count them in the end. The most important priority was to keep the storage area clean.
Inventory and Storage Management
Every week a new item in the inventory was being added therefore plastic and metal items were kept separately. Plastic items were kept on the floor whereas metal products were kept on the table in an organized manner. Since, keeping the storage are clean was also a part of the assignment therefore it used to be cleaned after every three days.
Social and Ethical Responsibility
Social and ethical responsibility of every person in this world should be to keep it clean. Recycling should be one thing which everyone is aware off. People need to be aware of how much can change if they start recycling. It is a social responsibility of every human being to recycle plastic as much as possible since it is very harmful for this planet.
Potential Business Enterprises
It’s hard to calculate the number of companies who use such products and recycle their plastic and metal waste and use it for functional things. There are restaurants, organizations which use recycled metal and plastic materials. For example, the SS plastic dining room is a restaurant which is made up of recycled plastic bottles (Tree hugger, 2010). This is one good way of minimizing the plastic from this world.
Recycling Centers and Cost Factors
Recycling center of America is one of the biggest recycling centers of plastic in America. They recycle at a very large scale and have their factories set up in most of the states. If we talk about metal recycling centers then Metal Source America, Inc. is a very big firm which recycles metals at a very large scale. They have recycling centers established in most of the states. Recycling metal is very expensive.
Collectivism
Collectivism is the opposite of individualism. People who are individualist believe in doing things for themselves and not for the entire society.
Collectivism is something in which people work together and for the whole society rather than just for themselves. It varies in cultures; there are some cultures in which people believe in acting as collective society and fighting for the betterment of the people but at the same time there are some cultures in which people do not really care about the betterment of anyone else except for themselves (via-web, 2011).
Plastic Issue
Plastic is a very big issue of this entire world. Plastic bags are light in weight and they are easy to carry but there is one thing that everyone should know about them and that is they are very harmful to this world. Plastic is a non-biodegradable product, it takes about hundreds of years to decompose. Plastic bags if burned become the cause of poisoning the air with toxic. There is no proper solution for the plastic issue but it is a person’s duty to use plastic products as less as one can. If we cannot stop it then at least we can reduce the use of it (Ezine articles, 2011).
During the past ten weeks while completing this assignment, a thing was realized that how important is to recycle and keep the world clean. Since, all these items were picked from within the house therefore it somehow made the house looked cleaner. Every person in this world should realize his role in how to keep this world clean and not destroying the atmosphere by the trash they throw out on the roads. It is our social and ethical responsibility in keeping this planet clean and green.
From the beginning to the end what all was required to produce the recyclable items can be explained through the following lines: Firstly, recycling is not a one man job therefore many employees were hired those who could go around and collect different types of plastic and metal waste and bring them to the factory to be recycled. For all this employees, trash collecting trucks, heavy machineries and workers who knew how to use the machineries were needed.
Supply chain of recyclable items can be explained in three points. First of all, when the trash gets recycled they are to be moved from the factory to the warehouse of the factory. Second, from the warehouse of the factory it is send to the distributors of recycled products. Third, the distributors sell it to different factories or customers who have something to do with recycled metal or plastic.
If a person is collecting and supplying the recyclable items then the chain would be like the following: Since, collecting recyclable items is not a one man job therefore many employees were hired to collect the recyclable items. After the collection was done, these recyclable items were brought to the storage area where all of these items were to be stored. From the storage area these items were to be sold to different factories or customers who pay a price for it.
For collecting these recyclable items on a commercial scale a lot of workers are needed, who could go out on the streets and collect trash, then a lot of trash collecting trucks and drivers are needed those who would bring all the recyclable waste back to the warehouse. Once the recyclable waste is at the warehouse then the distribution process starts in which trucks are again needed so that the products can be supplied to factories those who would recycle these items.
All of the recyclable items will be stored in a warehouse because it will be a place where only recycling items will be getting collected and no other work will be able to interrupt this process.
Starting with one distribution is obviously needed but as soon as more factories ordering for the plastic and metal waste then yes, there will be need of at least two or three distribution centers so that the different distribution centers are easily able to distribute the plastic and metal waste to different factories easily and not getting mixed up. This will be a local operation because it is necessary to clean the society first. Focus will be to collect the recyclable items locally.
Since, the supply load will be generating a lot therefore it will become necessary for outsourcing the parts of supply chain to different providers. Recycling is also a business; therefore, gaining profit is the aim of every business. By outsourcing the parts of supply chain, the work will be distributed and more work will be done in less time.
References
Ezine articles. (2011). The Effect of Plastic Bags on Environment. Web.
Tree hugger. (2010). Floating Plastic Dining Room is Taking Orders. Web.
Via-web. (2011). XIII. Individualism versus collectivism. Web.