Thanks for all the responses. The good news is that the area i'm in-- Fremont (basically a pretty heavily populated part of Seattle)-- has only 1 other "recycling" depot that takes everything except steel. I've checked them out and they're constantly busy however their operation is very small and they pretty much rip people off since they're really the only people in the greater Seattle area They won't give me any numbers but I would assume they're doing okay based on the amount of traffic they receive.
The big hub i'm talking about is called Calbag and it's located in Tacoma, WA which is about 1.5 hours or so down South so it's not really worth driving down for small loads. If you happen to live in Tacoma then it's probably worth it but a lot of people don't since Seattle is a bigger city. They are essentially on the pier though and very close to a railroad so they directly ship out to places like China and India. Unfortunately there are no railroads close to my area so we'd have to truck it.
I agree scaling the price based on the amount brought it would be the smartest choice since it would give people more incentive to bring more, but i'm not sure where I would find the daily prices of steel, copper, alum, etc. I would assume there's some place on the internet with the prices, but I need them to be in "price-per-pound" so I would know what to pay out. If I just look at the commodities on Wall Street and it says "copper is up x points" that doesn't mean a whole lot to me since I can't really do anything with that information.
The truck being able to carry 5 tons is actually a rough estimate and a poor one at that. I'm thinking the number might actually be close to 10-12 tons since it's one of those big construction trucks that was previously used to haul metal. I'm thinking we would have to contract out for truck drivers since we cannot spare anyone even for a couple hours. The idea is to deal both in bulk (unprepared steel that we would crush down using an excavator) and non-ferrous which would have to be separated before bringing it to us.
About the advertisement, we're thinking of posting flyers and Craigslist but word of mouth will inevitably play a large role. Thankfully the two brothers i'm working with are ex-contractors so they may still have some ties to spread the word. I can't really think of anything else so if you guys have any suggestions they would be greatly appreciated.
I'm just really nervous about spending the money since I lost my job a while back and this is a very large chunk of my money. I believe it's a great opportunity which is why I agreed, but it's a gamble. I don't know if people would come in at all and if we'd be able to make enough money considering we're literally being paid pennies here and the margin isn't that high. Regardless I think that it's an untapped market (for the most part) and i'm willing to do whatever it takes to make it.
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