The thing I really like about this project, is that it is a potential livliehood project, not just a pie in the sky thing without any ability to support oneself.
In the product bazaar and discussions, I see no real mention of one very obvious group that will buy our output.
That is machine shops.
Here in the Philippines where I live, HDPE plastic blocks for machining is kinda expensive. A square foot 1 inch thick will cost almost 4 days average Filipino laborers wages.
A machine shop owner literally spends 10-20 times his labor cost weekly on materials and overhead.
So I have started polling different machine shop owners I know here in the Philippines.
I asked them, if they would purchase recycled HDPE blocks if it was the mixed colors like I see in the examples.
I asked them at what price point would they consider using the multi colored recycled stuff, and the answer so far is 25% less for recycled material vs imported Taiwan virgin plastic.
So this has me thinking.
One could earn a nice living here in the Philippines just with a simple ad in the buy and sell website, and supplying blocks of HDPE to machine shops with the low cost overnight/2 day shipping domestic service.
Since the country is a group of islands, machine shop consumables are rather difficult to get outside of Manila and as far as I know, no one is selling machine shop consumables nationwide ala mcmaster carr.
What do you think?
From my point of view, I really am not a green environmental type. However when I see the plastic in the streets. I do not think, pollution, I see money and resources carelessly thrown away. I think to myself, the resources to lift oneself up and make a better life are just there in the ground and need to be picked up.
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