I think the pickup arrangement should be consistent with the local
industry. You are offering them a chance to do well by doing good.
You cannot pickup all of the local used cooking oil so it doesn't make
sense for you to do it for free. A small price break can often help
people
"Be the change they want to see in the world" Ghandi
but I wouldn't jump to free right off the bat. They may have a real
concern that you'll be out of business in 3 months (of course picking
up for free will probably reinforce that possibility). Tell them
you'll do it for free for two months or so. Once you've proven to
them that you're dependable and they like your service you'll start
charging them exactly what they are paying now.
If you do it for free you will be working under tighter financial
constraints than if you got paid to pickup. Remember you are one
service provider to this restaurant that has many and yours is
probably the smallest bill they bay every month. You will get about
50 gallons/month from each restaurant. Calculate how many restaurants
you'll need to sign up and figure out how much of a difference a
small change in fees will make to them and will make to your bottom
line. Set your price accordingly.
Actually good restaurants filter their oil every night. So having
them filter the oil before giving it to you wont change their
practices very much. If they aren't filtering now let them know that
their food will taste better an the oil will last longer if they start
filtering every night.
Here's a marketing script we've worked on.
Intro:
Hi I'm with ... We're a new company picking up used cooking oil and
we've created an entirely new oil pickup service that we guarantee you
is better than your existing oil service.
Our new service converts your oil into a renewable energy product that
greatly reduces our demand on foreign oil and is much better for the
environment. We are calling to invite you to participate.
Q: What do the other guys do with the oil?
Mostly low grade animal feed or land fill, traditional rendering
operations is in fact the second largest source of air pollution in
Hunters Point (California)
Q: Who is are you?
We are a locally owned and operated regional alternative energy
collaborative. By recycling your waste restaurant fryer oil through
the production of "Biodiesel" we provide a viable fuel alternative to
the finite and environmentally-destructive petroleum-based fuel
energies.
Q: How long have you been in business?
3 years.
Q. What other restaurants are you working with?
(get your referral list in place as soon as possible).
The California Culinary Academy,
Izzy's Steaks and Chops No's 1 (Marina, S.F.), 2(Corte Madera), 3 (San
Carlos), and Habana (Van Ness, S.F.), (Sam Duval).
Che Pa Pa and Chez Ma Ma in Portero Hill, Le Suite on Embarcadero
and Ola's run by Ola Fendert
Bills Place and Ernesto's in the Richmond.
Q: Well if you're selling your product you should take mine for free.
Your existing hauler is also using your product to make a sellable
product. BD currently sells for about $1 more than of petroleum diesel
prices due to the manufacturing and overhead costs. In order to make
biodiesel we have to do quite a bit more to the oil than the renders
do.
Theo Chadzichristos wrote:
Hey scott,
Hey scott,
I feel your pain ive been on the path of starting up myself. With regar
ds
to getting reaction vessels id stick to the metal ones. I myself just bought
a welder and am fortunate enough to have a small supply of 55gal barrels and
lots of good plastic containers to get started. I haven't found any metal
reactors that are anywhere near cheap. I was sick and tired of just thinking
how much I would have to spend on one though a company so I figured I could
make one myself. The welder is the most expensive item if your gonna DIY but
if u want to do things on a larger scale it will probably save u money in
the long run. I have the ability to make some extra reactors then I need,
and I was thinking of putting them on ebay or something but wasn't sure
anyone would want one. I might do that if there is enough interest. With
regards to the methanol I think you will find varying cooperation form each
company. I found some that didn't want to waste there time with me but
others were very eager for my business. It would probably help if you could
get under some kind of a small business/company name then companies take you
more serious. Lab equipment suppliers might know someone who would sell in
smaller quantities but if not just keep looking.
Best of Luck,
Theo C
Well, if anyone can help get me going, I'm all ears ... meanwhile, I'm
still
looking for good components for a system that will produce 4K gal per year:
personal plus one other family.
Here's what I've found:
Supplier of relatively affordable cone-bottom plastic vessels:
Wilbur-Ellis (Ag), Albany, Oregon (800)982-1099
30 gal $90
65 gal $180
100 gal $295
Stands $150
Pumps: Looking for air-powered diaphragm pumps ... for a whole lot
less than $500+ (Grainger). There's got to be something cheap
that will take the motor out of the equation. Any suggestions
where to look?
Appointment with Restaurant owner today: I'm not ready to handle their
waste yet.
I'll just ask them what they need to make life easier. How els
e can I
"grease the wheels" and make this sustainable for the long-haul
.
Buckets, barrels, dump-station, whatever they need: my attitud
e is to
help them. Does this mean I should be willing to take garbage?
What is
reasonable to ask them? To pour-off their WVO separately? Dou
bt it.
Get
what you get, beggar, patties, fries, spatulas, the works. Be
a
renderer?
I'll find-out, the hard way.
Methanol supply elludes me: Email contacts simply aren't working ...
drum level orders
are too small amount, apparently. Anybody out there?
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--
Kenneth Kron
President Bay Area Biofuel
[5]http://www.bayareabiofuel.com/
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Phone: 415-867-8067
What you can do, or dream you can do, begin it!
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
[7]Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
References
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4. http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/
5. http://www.bayareabiofuel.com/
6. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faust
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