Tuesday, November 4, 2014
USA: Mil-tek Central Recycling & Waste Solutions LLC, a franchise of a global supplier of waste solutions, is helping businesses clean up their back-rooms, save money and time on employees handling trash and sometimes make money on their recyclables.
Mil-tek Central Recycling & Waste Solutions LLC, a franchise of a global supplier of waste solutions, is helping businesses clean up their back-rooms, save money and time on employees handling trash and sometimes make money on their recyclables. Mil-tek, located at 4533 S. I 34th Street, sells small balers and compactors to businesses in order to reduce their carbon footprints. For instance, the smallest compactors compress 15 to 20 bags of trash into one bag of trash, said Dianna Johnson, co-owner of the franchise with her husband, Jeff.
"Even with the balers, they have done experiments with 6,000 grocery bags that filled a room. They put them in the smallest baler and made just one bale," she said.
The Johnsons opened the Omaha-based company in January with an exclusive distribution area for Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado. "However, we are also currently serving most of the Midwest as well," she said.
The benefits of these machines, she said, are more space in the backroom, neater and cleaner stores, a revenue source from plastic, time-savings for employees dealing with the trash, and helping the environment.
The machines are all air-compressed. There are no hydraulic fluids or oils, and there are no electrical components. They use an air hose to power them. "They aren't loud at all. The compressor doesn't have to be right by the baler or compactor," Jeff Johnson said.
The machines can go into restaurants, schools, hospitals and other places that normal compactors and balers may have not gone before. "We have machines in hotel/convention centers making a significant difference in their waste costs, hygiene and bottom line," Dianna Johnson said.
Mil-tek is an international company, based out of Denmark that originated in 1992 and is in more than 30 countries now. "Every business has trash," Jeff Johnson said. "We have a lot of different industries and all kinds of retail using these. We are trying to give them something to minimize their waste. We can help them streamline their trash, and in some cases, when they are baling cardboard and plastic, they can actually generate a revenue stream from those recyclable materials."
The balers start around $4,700, and the trash compactors are a little higher in price. "It is an investment, and they find a quick return for their money in less than two years," Dianna Johnson said. Business owners can purchase the machines outright or lease them. "We maintain the machinery during the lease," Jeff Johnson said. "The beauty of these machines is that there are not a lot of moving parts. Maintenance and upkeep really just means replacing a few minor parts and keeping the machines lubricated."
The couple, who has been married two years, operates another business, Prometric Testing in Omaha. It is a company providing computer-based testing with more than 1,600 different professional exams for a variety of occupations such as medical careers and CPAs.
"We were looking to find another business that we could be passionate about," she said. "I never thought we'd be passionate about trash."
However, once the Johnsons started researching Mil-tek, they got excited about how they could help businesses with their garbage situations.
"A learning piece for us has been how much human resources and time goes into trash," Dianna Johnson said. "When we go in and talk with a business about the machines, we come up with a total waste solution for them."
One business had a raccoon problem. "This particular business didn't take the trash out at night because the employees didn't want a raccoon to jump out at them," Jeff Johnson said.
For many years, Jeff Johnson had worked in the family food business. He also owned a software company in Lincoln for 15 years. Dianna Johnson started out in educational work, then was a behavioral psychologist and ended up in the business world as a franchise owner.
This article was written by Lee Nelson originally appeared in Midlands Business Journal, 26/10/2014
Recycling Franchise Mil-tek Central Aims to Save Disposal Costs for Midwest Clients
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