RAUL Haynes is making it his business to recycle. Literally.

His company — One Jamaica Recycling, located at 71 Parkway Road in Kingston — opened its doors in September 2009 and the 27-year-old hasn’t looked back since.

“I have evolved naturally and I find it far more exciting to pursue my dreams as opposed to someone else’s,” Haynes, a former research analyst/fixed income trader at Stocks and Securities Limited, told Career & Education.

“I have always been an entrepreneur; I was just waiting on the opportunity to present itself,” he quipped.

Haynes had previously worked as a management trainee and assistant manager at First Regional Co-operative Credit Union in St Ann, having interned with Pines Law Center and Titles Office in Pembroke Pines, Florida.

One Jamaica Recycling currently offers recycling solutions for not only plastics, but also paper, cardboard and aluminum waste. To provide these solutions, the company offers a network of waste collection trucks that are scheduled to suit clients. Pickups, according to information from the company’s website, are done multiple times per day or once a month — “depending on the levels of waste involved”.

“We do not charge for the collection of corporate or residential material, but we do pay contractors that drop off truck loads of recyclable material,” said Haynes, who holds a Bachelor’s degree in economics and international finance from Clark University in the United States.

“It’s a volume-intensive business. It takes 32,000 pounds of PET bottles to fill one container. Waiting on persons to be moved by their conscience to recycle won’t cut it. We have to target many unemployed areas and use cash as an incentive to recycle,” added the Campion College past student, who also attended Mona Prep.

Contractors are currently paid $7 per pound for plastic they deliver.

The company, which began operations at Factories Corporation Complex 2251/2 Marcus Garvey Drive, also in the capital, has since 2010 exported 425 tonnes of cardboard and 500 tonnes of plastic.

Haynes, who is supported by a team that includes a director of finance (Daniel Cheeks) and a creative director (Donesha Prendergast), is inspired in his efforts by not only the need to meet his bottom line goals, but also the environment. The company name, he said, reflects that.

“I chose the name to remind all of us that we only have one Jamaica and without aggressively pursuing recycling, we are destroying the gem of an island. Also, I wanted to show the need for a team-approach while doing so,” said Haynes, adding that he had seen “a real need for the service”.

He noted that his company’s mission is to “obtain a grade A in recycling”, collecting “90 per cent of all recyclable material in the island”. All of this while striving to “make every year’s earnings better than the last in the most ethical way possible”.

After two years in business, Haynes and his team are expanding — a process that began with their move to their present location and the increase in their export volumes.

“For me, I will be going to Ontario, Canada to receive some further training in waste management. For the company, we will be preparing for an expansion for early next year,” Haynes said.

The journey to where they are today, though, has been no ‘cake walk’.

“There was a lot of red tape with regards to export. I think that we (Jamaica) need to focus on providing way more incentive to encourage local exporters. The high cost of factory rental space, and crime (also need to be addressed),” the One Jamaica Recycling managing director said of the challenges so far.

And the difficulties are not over.

“(There are issues with) accesses to lines of credit, particularly to finance widespread marketing campaigns. We are in the business of export and it takes a while to receive payments from some of our buyers. This oftentimes distorts our cash flow. Nonetheless, we have seen tremendous improvements from the start until now and it’s a constant work in progress,” he told Career & Education.

However, they refused to quit.

“We are currently raising the required capital to go full throttle for next year (when) we plan to expand significantly,” Haynes said, adding that, among other things, they have been utilising conventional and non-conventional media to market the business.

“We have appeared on a couple of TV/radio programmes… We have participated in Green Expo where we won a prize and we flyer-target communities predominantly located near the factory. However, overall we mainly use social networking sites, for example, Facebook — One Jamaica Recycling Group — and Twitter: OneJaRecycling,” he said.