1.
What is
demanufacturing? How is it different from “recycling”?
2.
Are we
going to see appliances and scrap metal all over the place?
3.
Is the
facility going to produce a lot of pollution in our community?
4. How safe will I be if I’m working there?
5.
A
lot of businesses have left smaller rural areas – will you?
7.
11. How can GreenSafe offer its demanufacturing service for free? It sounds too good to be true!
1.
What is
demanufacturing? How is it different from “recycling”?
When we see the word
“recycling” it conjures up images of large ugly piles of discarded
items whether they are pop cans and pizza boxes from last night’s
snack, or acres of wrecked cars in a scrap-yard.
In the regular
recycling industry, a recycler will only collect the compressor, the
exterior cooling or heating elements and some glass. The discarded
remainder is crushed together into a cube containing a mixture of
metals, glass, rubber and plastics.
This cube has a
relatively low value as it has many impurities.
DEMANUFACTURING,
which uses ultra-modern equipment, carefully shreds and sorts all
the parts of each appliance. The sorted material has a very high
value as there is very little in the way of cross-contamination.
The GreenSafe process carefully extracts CFC’s and pentane, the ozone-depleting substances. Any insulating foam is shredded in a shroud which captures these very same CFC’s as well and converts them into non-hazardous format.
2.
Are we
going to see appliances and scrap metal all over the place?
In a word - NO!!!
All of the appliances
waiting to be processed are stored indoors. The material produced at
the end of the process is immediately shipped out in containers.
3.
Is the
facility going to produce a lot of pollution in our community?
AIR POLLUTION
While every business
creates some by-product, our facility will release almost no
emissions into the air. These emissions are not created from
chemical processes, just from heating.
HAZARDOUS SPILLS
The only area where
liquids are involved is in the CFC collection and treatment area.
The liquids at this point are reduced to a non-hazardous state.
AIR PARTICLE
EMISSIONS
The greatest emission
concern we have would be dust created by the shredding process. This
process is done in a protected area to contain the dust.
NOISE POLLUTION
With all of the processing done indoors, the amount of noise will be minimal. Noisy equipment will be located within a room designed to contain sound.
4. How safe will I be if I’m working there?
A lot safer than
walking across the street to a Tim Horton’s store in the morning
when everyone else wants coffee!
The main apparatus is
designed with all mandatory safeguards in state-of-the-art
machinery.
In addition, we have
built in extra system lockouts to protect the employees and our
community.
To alleviate
potential lifting injuries our staff will use equipment to move the
appliance stock. The building will be well lit and the floors power
swept daily. Internal air quality will monitored as an added
measure. GreenSafe will provide ongoing training in safe handling
practices and will provide all of the necessary safety gear.
5.
A lot
of businesses have left smaller rural areas – will you?
There is a litany of
historical accounts where a business has come into town, taken all
of the available grants and other inducements and when the troubles
hit, they left town.
The GreenSafe
situation is different. Unless we as a society are going to give up
on appliances, GreenSafe will have a never ending supply to
demanufacture. Our roots are firmly set in Caraquet.
GreenSafe has not
requested any financial support of any kind form the Federal or
Provincial governments. All we ask from these levels of government
is that they expedite any approval processes as quickly as possible.
6.
Why
Caraquet, like many small communities in
As in many smaller
communities across Canada, the cost of living is substantially less
than say in the Calgary, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver areas to
name a few. A skilled worker in a small town earning say a salary of $
40k can afford a comfortable home. The same income in
There is also an
intangible cost being the impact on what we do. Creating a new plant
with over 100 full time positions in a small town is very meaningful
in the life of that community. This type of job creation often gets
lost in a larger city. When we move into a community like Caraquet,
we do so for the long haul. As the Community Page of this website
suggests, we plan to be an integral part of the economic and social
life of our communities. You can’t quantify these benefits but you
will be able to see it every day.
Based on our
thorough cost analysis, the Caraquet facility can draw from as far
west as Chicago, Illinois and as far south as Jacksonville,
Florida and still be more
economical than performing the same demanufacturing activity in
those very same communities. From a practical perspective, the
market catchment will be shorter as there is sufficient volume
within central and eastern
9. How will the feedstock be carted to Caraquet?
In
the short run, custom built side-door containers will be used to
move about 1.6 million used appliances annually from
10.
GreenSafe Demanufacturing Inc is a closely held Canadian corporation. We are not a public company although we may consider this route at some future point.
Quite simply, volume
commitments.
The
commitment of volumes from a variety of manufacturers, retailers and
waste management firms allows GreenSafe to purchase the most
technologically advanced equipment available. Higher cost equipment
typically will result in greater productivity so the cost per unit
is lower. For example, we can reduce a 22 cubic foot refrigerator to
its basic building blocks in 36 seconds. Also, the most modern
machines do a far better job of demanufacturing and sorting. In
fact, we can recover virtually 100% of the original weight as
resalable by-products with at least a 95% assurance that what we
sell is that specific by-product. Please take a look at the quality
of the outputs on the Sales page. By having larger volumes, we can
negotiate better rates for transportation to our facilities, the
purchasing of power and supplies.
The bottom line is
that with the security of volume, we can generate more income per
unit than with conventional methods and do so at less cost over our
competitors as well.