How to start a small business of used clothes recycling?
Background: Nowadays, the world goes like a village where people can travel very easily. Citizens from Africa countries migrated to Europe, America, Asia, or Oceania etc., from time to time. They started to have a family and lived there. As we know that those developed countries have a lot of A grade used clothing and some of them are 100% new but dropped off or scattered everywhere. Hence, there are Africans start to create company or organizations to collect, sort, and compact used clothing into density bales for exporting to their motherland. It is a very good business which earns high profits and keeps our earth in a much green way. Read through this article will definitely help you to get a full idea of used clothing recycling. It is highly recommended for those who are going to start up a new business as beginners.
1. To know more about your customers and markets in Africa counties
1.1 Bale weight of used clothing
Most of clothing bales are 55kg or 120lbs, but some can be as heavy as 500kg or 1100lbs. Other common bale weights are like 40kg, 45kg, 50kg, 60kg, 100kg etc. They’re also specialties, for example in Kenya where the customer only accepts a 30kg bale. A small and lighter bale is much affordable for individual re-sellers and can be easily moved from place to place. Textile baler or used clothing baler manufactured by SKBALER can get bale weight from 30kg and up to 600kg per bundle. The big bale weight is designed for those who have large quantities.
1.2 Bale size of second-hand clothes
The most common bale size is 700*400*350-800mm for small bale weight of 45kg, 50kg, and 55kg. Then end-users in Africa may require a shorter or bigger bale shape. Once again you need to consult and communicate with them deeply before you selling to them.
1.3 Bale strap numbers
From bale strap numbers, customers from Africa can see where it comes. As you may know that the bale straps are various in UK, FRANCE, GERMANY, or USA etc. The most common bale straps are 4*2, 5*2, 4*1 for small bales.
2. To define your used clothes recycling business scale and budget
2.1 Monthly processing volume of used clothes
For example, how many 20ft or 40ft containers you planned to ship every month? It equals to how much volumes you will recycle monthly and how many hours to work daily. This all leads to hour capacity. To start a new business of recycling old clothing, generally one set of small clothing baler model VLC7040T30 will be good enough. It costs like 7000USD/SET FOB SHANGHAI. However, for big companies, they can also buy 5 or 10 sets in one time to start the business.
2.2 To buy new or used textile baler machine
We suggest customer to buy a 100% new clothing baler or textile baler if you really want to get started. As you know that the old machines have a lot of potential problems which will definitely cause headaches in the near future. New textile baler manufactured by SKBALER in China is one the highest quality in the global market.
3. Prepare your warehouse or facility where will install the clothing baler
Make sure you will rent a place where has 3 phase power supply (industrial electricity). Otherwise, you can only choose a 4-doors opening textile baler which built on single phase or 1 phase. It requires more labor time to get a bale packed, and can only get bale weight from 25kg to 50kg.
4. Full accessories of hydraulic clothing baler
4.1 Transparent or clear plastic bags to pack the finished bale. It is required to protect the bale from any dust or water.
4.2 Electrical strapping machine or binding machine to strap the bale vertically and horizontally.
4.3 Weighing scale for fixed bale weight, for instance 55kg.
4.4 Sorting conveyor to remove the unwanted used clothing out.
5. To know the difference of plastic bale, cardboard bale, and clothing bale
Through below picture, we can know that the used clothing bale is wrapped by bags and strapped into # shape, while other bales are not.
To know more about a cardboard baler or plastic baler please kindly click the links below.
CARDBOARD BALERS FOR SALE
BALERS FOR PLASTIC RECYCLING
6. Private company or non-profit organizations
SKBALER, as one of the leading textile baler manufacturers in China, are offering 500USD discounts for the non-profit organizations when they’re buying clothing press machine from us. Let’s help each other to create a green earth and wish all Africans a better future.
In conclusion, no matter you are starting a small or big used clothing recycling business, you are helping the Africans and our earth. You call it Africa, we call it Home. Check more details of our lifting chamber baler, textile baler, or clothing baler in below.
A complete video of how to recycle and press the used clothing into a density bale