These days, corporate philanthropy is becoming a big business in itself as donors and donations grab massive headlines. In fact, it could be claimed that donors are engaged:

Corporate Philanthropy: The New Arms Race

“The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced”
– Andrew Carnegie

public and corporate philanthropy

While some business leaders are directed down a path to earn as much money as they can, others seem to be on a mission to give it all away. While not everyone can give on the same level as Bill and Melinda Gates, other high earners are happy to crawl their way up the ladder in an attempt to reach these high levels of generosity.

Warren Buffett, who needs no introduction in the philanthropy world, continues to give away billions of dollars a year in both cash and stock in his company. Buffett has no problem spending the $27,600 he earns each minute, as long as it is spent on relevant causes and not socked away into a rainy day fund.

Andrew Carnegie once said that men who die rich, die disgraced. This is a statement that men like Bill Gates of Microsoft and Bob Parsons in Arizona seem to have adopted as their mantra. Parsons has quietly set himself on the path to be one of the biggest philanthropists in Arizona. Parsons is a billionaire, through significantly lower on the rich list than Gates and Buffett, and he has already established a huge focus on both diversification and philanthropy since he left GoDaddy in 2014.

It is not just stocks and bonds that today’s philanthropists are giving away. Leonard Lauder, of Estee Lauder fame, recently gave one of his art collections to the Met in New York. The collection was worth approximated 13 percent of his net worth. The collection was valued by the museum at around $1.1 billion. The donation included a whopping 33 Picasso paintings among other works.

Even young money is getting in on the game. Mark Zuckerberg, who is 31 years of age, has given away $1.5 billion over his lifetime. Considering his lifetime is short, and Facebook’s profitability is even shorter, he seems to be racing to keep up with America’s older and more experienced givers. In 2013, he gave away $991 million in Facebook stock. These stocks went to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation where the profits were dispersed among the community.

While not every tech founder can afford to give away the $30.2 billion that Bill and Melinda Gates have donated during their lifetime, more and more founders are attempting to catch up. But are America’s biggest investors enough to propel the economy of philanthropy into the future? Only time will tell.

What is your attitude to corporate philanthropy? Do you donate? Do you do it publicly or privately?

Societies have been recycling since time began in a bid to improve their environment. Nowadays, many entrepreneurs have taken on the duty by establishing their own enterprises. If you look at companies, like Waste Management, you’ll see how profitable it can be if it’s done well.

Range of Recycling Equipment

Recycling equipment such as waste balers and compressors are now common in recycling facilities. It’s true, though, that ordinary  people hardly understand the meaning of these innovations. Let’s take a look at two terms:

Balers, derived from the word ‘bale’ (to make a large bundle) are recycling machines used to compact any sorted recyclable material into smaller, more manageable units. Waste materials such as plastics, papers, boards and cans are usually compressed into units and later baled before delivery to garbage centers for disposal.

Compactors are more or less the same as balers with the same functionality. Nevertheless, compactors are usually used to compress (‘compact’) a chunk of unsorted waste material.

You’ll also be able to purchase recycling stations, compressors, and presses for sale. Whatever kind of waste management situation you have, you’ll find that there is a solution.

Residential vs. Commercial

Generally, residential-use balers and compactors are normally refrigerator-size recycling equipment with a push button facility that eases operation. This means they are developed to suit most operating environments. Most of this kind of recycling equipment is small in size, simple to use and excellent in producing smaller waste bales that are easy to handle and light-weight.

For commercial operations, balers and compactors are important recycling equipment because of the introduction of environmental conservancy programs and their legal requirements. So, balers and compactors are needed for consolidating waste material into manageable units for haulers to weigh and transport.

Where’s there’s muck, there’s brass

It might surprise you that using a commercial service may help you in several ways you hadn’t considered before. Recycling industries are usually in business and therefore they buy the recyclable trash from hauling companies. The waste material is weighed and priced per an agreed price per unit weight.

Secondly, the use of recycling equipment reduces the number of trash cans a company has to buy in cases where there is a large amount waste involved. In return, a company saves money that can be used for other purposes. It helps also to control the amount of space devoted to storing waste, saving valuable rental costs.

Finally, balers and compactors compress waste material making it look neat and well contained. This will enhance the image of a company as well as its overall conditions. After all, you don’t want a lot of garbage lying around, do you? It wouldn’t look great for customers.

So, if your organization is generating waste; and facing rising costs because of that, compactors and balers may bail you out of a tricky situation. They can be used by schools, as well as manufacturing industries, hospitals and recycling companies.

Essential requirements for Equipment

However, proper guidelines and manual instructions must be followed. This means any operator handling the machine should check the unit with the safety code and adhere to the instructions. The responsibility for safety wholly depends on the operator.

Specific personnel will need to be trained with the right skills to operate the equipment. And the machines should be serviced as per the manufacturer’s manual guidelines, to prevent problems and achieve maximum efficiency.

All in all, waste management difficulties becomes a problem of the past with these ‘beasts’ in-house. Therefore, don’t be reluctant to purchase this kind of Easi Recycling equipment, weigh the advantages first, then you’ll definitely make the right decision.

If you’re not investing in equipment, you should certainly consider the opportunities for investing in companies in this space. How many multi-billion dollar companies will be needed to provide waste management services for the developing world. Like I said, “Where there’s muck, there’s brass”.