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It's a pity that meaningful debate almost always turns into a childish mudslinging and name calling. SoS. Grow up guys!
The Forum is for open discussion and exchange of ideas. Not everyone has to agree with your views.
A large number of small businesses were started because the owner had to keep the wolf from the door after losing his/her job.
The result is that a small % are very successful, some more make a living, some are slaves to their business and loose money and interest slowly, others pack it in when they get another job.
For every one that falls off one end there are a number that climb aboard the other.
very true.. You should always follow your passion and talents and start a business that you see yourself doing when money is not coming in fast enough. Now before you get me wrong I am not saying you should stick to something that is not working, but if others are making money out of it, and you are fulfilled doing it then most certainly keep going. All businesses have their up's and down's and it's not always smooth sailing. At times it just a case of getting people with complimentary skills that you are short in to help you.
It's a pity that meaningful debate almost always turns into a childish mudslinging and name calling. SoS. Grow up guys!
The Forum is for open discussion and exchange of ideas. Not everyone has to agree with your views.
I agree,
Please accept my apology Blurock & HR Solutions....I did not mean to come across as arrogant or sarcastic....I hope we can have more meaningful discussions on this forum in the future.
Let's revive business Ideas.I am sure there are some pretty innovative guys out there and would like to hear from them.
Plastic pollution has been prevalent in the news lately with everything from townships to oceans being polluted by tons of plastic.
I have recently seen an article of guys making bricks from recycled plastic. Also seen park benches and garden tools etc.
In the Eastern Cape and in KZN the first plastic roads are being built. Strips of 1 - 5 km of road will be tested with a new mixture of bitumen and recycled plastic.
So instead of polluting our rivers and dams, we can now spread it on the road!
Let's revive business Ideas.I am sure there are some pretty innovative guys out there and would like to hear from them.
Plastic pollution has been prevalent in the news lately with everything from townships to oceans being polluted by tons of plastic.
I have recently seen an article of guys making bricks from recycled plastic. Also seen park benches and garden tools etc.
In the Eastern Cape and in KZN the first plastic roads are being built. Strips of 1 - 5 km of road will be tested with a new mixture of bitumen and recycled plastic.
So instead of polluting our rivers and dams, we can now spread it on the road!
Recycling plastic is REALLY REALLY difficult. The biggest problem is that not all plastics are the same. Plastics have to be separated before processing. Separating plastic is very difficult because it cannot be done mechanically - it is mostly done by hand. Now the problem gets even bigger because hygiene is crucial when working by hand. We all know that our plastic and other waste is contaminated and one runs the risk of coming into contact with medical waste. Unless waste is properly cleaned and separated at source it is nearly impossible to do (let alone do cost effectively)
I am not knocking the idea of recycling per se, I just think that it it made out to be a panacea which it isn't. The best way to "save the environment" is to limit the over use of hazardous materials at source. Look at how much waste got sent back to the US, Canada and other 1st world countries after being dumped on small countries. The 1st world is totally incapable of recycling its own waste -I watched a documentary where they show that all the carefully separated recycling simply gets dumped into landfills because it is simply too costly and difficult to process.
Recycling plastic is REALLY REALLY difficult. The biggest problem is that not all plastics are the same. Plastics have to be separated before processing. Separating plastic is very difficult because it cannot be done mechanically - it is mostly done by hand. Now the problem gets even bigger because hygiene is crucial when working by hand. We all know that our plastic and other waste is contaminated and one runs the risk of coming into contact with medical waste. Unless waste is properly cleaned and separated at source it is nearly impossible to do (let alone do cost effectively)
Agreed, recycling is very costly and cumbersome, but there are actually some guys who have found a solution to recycling plastics. Do they perhaps have a source of
"clean: plastic?
The best way to save the environment may be to start eating human flesh as one scientist suggested recently. (Shock & horror!) He did not actually suggest cannibalism but recycling flesh of the deceased. Sounds more like eating "roadkill" to me. To be honest, reducing the human population will solve 90% of our problems as we are running out of resources, including water and clean air.
Agreed, recycling is very costly and cumbersome, but there are actually some guys who have found a solution to recycling plastics. Do they perhaps have a source of
"clean: plastic?
The best way to save the environment may be to start eating human flesh as one scientist suggested recently. (Shock & horror!) He did not actually suggest cannibalism but recycling flesh of the deceased. Sounds more like eating "roadkill" to me. To be honest, reducing the human population will solve 90% of our problems as we are running out of resources, including water and clean air.
To me the biggest problem is capitalism / consumerism / consumption / obsolescence. Our economy is driven by continual sales and consumption and thus we manufacture low quality products designed to fail purely to keep our economy going. Cars are a perfect example. The are generally over produced because the seller needs to have them ready on the floor in case a person happens to walk in and purchase the car. The next year new models are produced in the same volumes yet the previous year models remain unsold. The unsold cars are not put on the market at lower prices because that wold damage the resale value of the newly purchased cars. They are shipped to storage facilities to be destroyed.
Another example is light bulbs - one can argue that led bulg use less electricity at the end consumer than incandescent bulbs but those led lamps use up far more resources to manufacture and also do not recycle particularly well. An incandescent bulb is a bit of metal and a bit of glass that recycles very easily. It it a well known fact that incandescent bulbs can be manufactured to last 100 years yet the practice was stopped so as to promote consumerism.
I cannot think of any product today that is value for money - Every single consumer product manufactured today is designed to fail within a fairly short time. The washing machine fails after 3 years, the geyser blows up after 5 years, the cell phone is replaced every 2 years etc. The old Kirby vacuum cleaner manufactured in 1950 still works - the new hoover falls apart in a year.
Shoes - my Hi-Tec boots cost R700 and fail at exactly the same place year after year.
Everybody always blame the Chinese for poor products but the problem goes far deeper than low quality knock-offs. The problem is that the 1st world is driven by consumption and that consumption is at the expense of the 3rd world.
Recycling is really a farce to make the 1st world consumer feel a little better about the continual unnecessary waste of resources. It doesn't work in practice on the scale that it needs to to make a real difference.
The most successful entrepreneurs in this world have looked at problems and have found solutions which has made them very rich.
We can choose to be part of the problem or part of the solution.
Putting ideas into practice is a skill that not all of us have, unfortunately.
The most successful entrepreneurs in this world have looked at problems and have found solutions which has made them very rich.
We can choose to be part of the problem or part of the solution.
Putting ideas into practice is a skill that not all of us have, unfortunately.
Well there you have it, some people are getting rich from recycling trash. Children, who have never had an opportunity, are being educated from the proceeds of trash recycling. However, the problem is still too many people generating too much trash!
The reality is that we have not yet found effective ways of recycling. It is a dirty business and sorting through tons of trash is cumbersome. Therefore sorting trash at source, which some 1st world countries are doing, may be the first step. E.g. putting cans and glass in separate recycling containers. Plastic is more difficult due to the many different types and combinations of plastic.
There are some companies who got it right and they are the pioneers who are leading the way. Just as a gold mine have to move millions of tone of ore before producing a few ounces of gold. Then there are the ones who just bury their waste in a landfill for future generations to deal with it.
I am exited by new innovative developments in solar power, wind power and also recycling. Consider all the new technologies that's been developed in the last 20 - 30 years; cell phones, 3D printing, photo copiers, solar geysers, heart transplants etc etc - too many to mention. Now the question is How do we reduce the population generating all the trash that is killing the planet?
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