Recycle Belize
The objective of this outreach is to recycle materials, such as wood, metal, aluminum, household items, and clothing. Usable items and materials will be restored, repaired, and resold. Salvageable wood will be trimmed, sorted and used for several different purposes (to be detailed later). Metal products that cannot be resold will be compacted, cars will be “upgraded”, soft compacted and transported along with the rest of the metal scrap to the port at Big Creek, Belize and barged to either a scrap buyer in Honduras or Houston, Texas and sold to a scrap metal user in the states.
The monies produced from the resale of all recycled and resold items will be used to:
1) Purchase other materials to recycle.
2) Secure the necessary equipment to operate the entity.
3) Pay a monthly rental fee to Here’s Hope Ministries for the use of their property and building in Belize.
4) Pay the labor and management costs to operate the center.
5) Fund as many future home building projects in the surrounding communities as possible.
6) Develop a training program for the unemployed in the surrounding communities of Homestead and Valley Community.
7) Develop transition programs for the girls as they reach the age to leave the orphanage (Hosanna House) located in Valley
Community.
8) Fund scholarships for those girls that have shown promise and ability to go on to higher education from the orphanage.
We currently have Mr. Bret Wollaston, of Conserv-It in Hagerstown, Maryland, working on our behalf to establish the pipeline for getting our recycled metals from Belize to the either Honduras or Houston. We have commitment from members of the Life-House construction mission team to travel to Belize to assist in the completion of the recycling center office and to layout and construct the recycling storage yard.
LAND USE PLAN:
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Currently Hosanna House has excess acreage it is not using and does not have plans for its use any time soon. It is our plan to lease a portion of the unused land to install a parking area and to level of a sizeable parcel to be used for sorting, storage, and loading of recycled materials. The area of interest is at the top of the drive, to the right of the orphanage, abutting the unfinished tech. building. The area would be cleared of vegetation, leveled to supply proper runoff, stoned in, and compacted. The existing tech. building would be finished off to be used as an office and store.
A fence would be built along the roadside face of the building to block the line-of-sight from the Hummingbird Highway. Drive entry and exits would also be constructed to secure the area from improper use. Long term plans would include the construction of an open, metal roofed, building to act as a storage area for materials and equipment.
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I, Ronald Powers, and my wife, Beth Powers, plan to manage all operations of the recycle center. I would be serving strictly as a volunteer to oversee yard operations, to determine staffing and equipment needs, and to coordinate metal pick-up and transportation requirements. I would also assist with the restoration of resalable materials and the sorting of other materials. Along with the yard duties I also would be responsible for assisting and organizing home building teams, tool inventory, and the ordering of home material packages to be delivered to the sites. Longer term plans are for me to develop a training program to teach construction techniques to the local unemployed using the home building projects and repair projects as the hands-on laboratory.
Beth, as a paid manager, would be responsible for the everyday operations including, payroll, material purchase, salability decisions, office and store operations, accounts payable and receivable, and marketing. Since we would be working closely together, we both would be versed in all aspects of the outreach, so many duties may overlap or be shared as necessary. We are very much intent on creating a viable operation that will grow, will add employment opportunities to members of the community, will instill pride in the homes that are built, will develop a sense of community, outside just the family, in the community members, and will all be done for the glory of God.
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To begin we would be hiring at least four, yard employees. These employees’ responsibilities would include, but not be limited to, the following:
- Assist in receiving and inventorying usable material returned from home project sites.
- Sort and stack material according to size and type.
- Trim off bad sections of wood when necessary
- Sort aluminum from metal.
- Compact metals, band, and store properly
- Load metal cubes on trailers for transport
- Maintain the yard in an orderly fashion and free of all debris
- Go off site to retrieve cars to be recycled, load onto rollback
- Upgrade cars at center and sort materials by category
- Assist in loading of materials for transport to Big creek
We would also be hiring one store employee. This employee’s responsibilities would include, but not be limited to the following:
- Answering the phone in a professional manner.
- Waiting on customers in the store.
- Setting up displays.
- Cleaning and repairing items for resale.
- Receiving and inventorying of donated items
- Placing price tags on merchandise
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Initially the center will operate as a drop off point for recyclables and restores. As time progresses a more aggressive approach will be implemented to secure the necessary materials. All materials accepted will be inventoried, a cash ticket will be issued indicating its purchased value, even if that value is zero, and then will be moved to the appropriate location. All items would then be prepared for transportation, reuse, or for resale.
Materials will be handled as follows:
Metal:
- All metals will be sorted by removing debris and aluminum.
- Metals will be cut to a size manageable for the compactor, crushed and stored for transport.
- When the tonnage necessary for barging is acquired, the cubes will be loaded on tractor trailers and transported to the port for loading and shipment to the contracted metal user.
- Upgraded items will be shipped in prefab containers easily loaded on a trailer bed
- Cars will be soft crushed, stacked, and strapped on flat trailers for shipment to the port.
- Any reusable metals, such as metal roofing, will be sorted and stacked to be filtered into home project packages, for use on homes only needing repair, or for resale.
Wood:
- Cutoff pieces and unusable wood will be pulled out and cut into uniform size, bundled, and either distributed to those in need or sold as cooking firewood.
- All reusable material will be trimmed to a uniform length, sorted by size, and stored to be used in home construction packages, home repair or for resale.
- Long range plans include constructing bed platforms and cooking tables out of recycled wood.
- Prefab containers will be constructed from recycled wood for transport of upgraded materials.
Household Items:
- Donated or purchased clothing will be cleaned, priced, and displayed for resale.
- Any other items donated or purchased will be cleaned, repaired (as necessary), priced and displayed for resale.
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· Metal Compactor (To be donated by Chambersburg Waste Paper Co.)
· Rollback truck (To be donated by Rick Harshman and Bud Layman) with extra-large wire spoil.
· Portable digital scale
· Gas powered cutoff saw with metal cutting blades
· Heavy duty saws-all
· Battery operated drill
· Car Ramps
· 5 ton yard crane
· Banding machine
· Heavy chains with chain pulls
· Heavy duty straps
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For the outreach to grow we have looked at several ways of marketing the center.
Beth and I will be attending churches in the area to get the word out that the center will be available to all for either bringing in materials for donation, or to receive cash for their items. We will also stress the availability of materials for repair on their homes either through donation or for purchase well below market value. Our goal is to expose this outreach as a community wide outreach that they can participate in in many ways beyond just receiving free help. Our primary goal, though is to instill in them a desire to acquire a servant’s heart which only comes through a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Future-plans include going to homes and collecting large items, such as abandoned cars, setting up drop off containers at prearranged sites in local cities and towns, and to be able to pay enough for the material to make it worthwhile for community members to keep their home sites free of debris.
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- Rent will be established and paid to Hosanna House monthly.
- A salary will be established and paid to Beth Powers weekly for management duties.
- An hourly wage will be established to be paid to all Recycle Center employees.
- Tool and equipment purchases will be funded by the center as necessary and affordable.
- Home material packages and repair materials will be either pulled from inventory or ordered and paid for with center funds.
- A scholarship fund will be established to assist the girls in attaining their goal of a higher education.
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Home Projects and Repairs:
All decisions on whom would qualify for our teams to construct a new home for them or to make repairs to their existing home will come through an application process to be overseen by the local community church and its members. Room and board for the construction teams will be provided at Hosanna House Team Lodge through Resurrection Ministries. Site location, type of foundation, and ordering of materials would be handled by myself and the construction foreman. Our intentions are to be able to build more than one home at a time or include repairs along with home building, and to use local paid labor or volunteer help as much as possible. This would segue nicely into the future training program. Home packages and repair plans will include a labor component to be determined at a later date. The home projects would also require a commitment from the receiver to work a minimum of hours, along with the construction team to qualify. That work would most likely involve, general labor, carrying materials, cleaning out their home, assisting in demolition, and clean-up of debris and construction waste.
The responsibilities of the construction teams are as follows:
- Demolish existing structure and hauling of materials back to the center.
- Lay-out of new home to be constructed.
- Unloading, sorting and inventorying of building materials.
- Construction of new home according to standard plans.
- Clean-up of job site of all materials and debris, returning all material cutoffs and unused material to the center
- Account for and inventory all tools to be returned to the center.
Tool Plan:
It is our intention to buy, label, inventory, clean and store all tools necessary for the efficient completion of home projects. At some point, a small tool trailer will be acquired for the storage of tools and for the transport to job sites. Inventory sheets will be developed to maintain tool inventory integrity. The logs will be the responsibility of the job foremen.
Following are some of the tools to be inventoried:
- Gas powered air compressor
- Gas Containers
- Air Hoses
- Nail guns
- ½’ Hammer drill
- Battery powered drills
- Power saws
- Chop saw on table
- Digging irons
- Shovels
- Trash bags
- Gas Generator
- Laser level and legs
- Wrecking bars
- Saws-all and blades
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It is obvious, that we do not have all the logistics worked out yet. You will notice we have not included income projections in this proposal. We are still in the process of determining transport costs to the port of choice (they are currently being calculated), barge load requirements (we have met with the shipping master at Big Creek), dock storage, transport costs over water and the purchaser (we now have a contact in both Honduras and Houston). These issues are being addressed by Bret Wollaston out of the goodness of his heart and he has assured us of the feasibility of the attempt. We expect it will take six months to a year to get up and running.
We are extremely excited and fearful of starting this outreach, but we also feel it is the direction we are being called. If there are any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me at (717)494-6442, or at ronaldpowers.author@gmail.com.
Your Brother in Christ,
Ronald Powers