Recruiting scrap clients by offering bin service

One of the ways I've been able to grow my business in such a relatively short time is by offering a bin service tailored to customer needs. A key aspect is offering bins that don't look beat up to help fit in with clients who keep a clean shop. So if you're a machine shop doing precision CNC routing and producing borings and clips as scrap your workspace won't have beat up, rusty old bins to collect them like most scrapyards will provide. I keep mine clean as possible and looking good. When I show up to prospective customers - most of whom do not have a pick-up service already in play - with nice looking bins and offering good prices it's frankly a pretty easy sale.



It only takes a few pickups for the bin to pay for itself usually and you can offer bins that suit the shop needs. Some with locking lids that can be left outside, others are open top to be left inside. And all have forklift access from any side and are stackable so as to take up less client shop space. In the photos you can see two different sizes, the smaller are 3'x3'x3' and the larger one with the open lid is 7'x4'x4'. One is full of brass shells at an ammo client and the others are on the my truck at a public collection event this past weekend at a shopping mall. The view is from back, the public saw them lined up along the other side and I got at least one new commercial client who stopped by with material to drop off. For folks interested in setting up service with commercial clients, this is how I do it. Hope it helps!

That sure is a varied collection of brass.

Originally Posted by ChildhoodDream

That sure is a varied collection of brass.

It's from a place that prepares used shells for reloading. Their rejects of all calibers

Originally Posted by hobo finds

What is the weight of the brass shells. And cool that you picked up a commercial account at the waste drop off event!

That bin was 1199 lbs net weight. Swapped out two from them that day, the other 1306 lbs.

I have 4 customers mainly right now that I do electronics pickups from (and one that is just wires)... I have been thinking of trying to offer some sort of offering like this to them to encourage them to keep using me as currently they just text when where ever they are keeping the stuff fills up, and I just hand load it into my pickup truck (or utility trailer depending on amount).

I have been thinking of ordering some of these https://www.uline.com/BL_1841/Poly-Box-Trucks and having enough to swap out at each location. It would just mean I need to bring the trailer everytime though as I would have no way to load them into the pickup bed when full. They also arent super cheap (but def much cheaper than full metal containers like you are using!)

Originally Posted by kss

I have 4 customers mainly right now that I do electronics pickups from (and one that is just wires)... I have been thinking of trying to offer some sort of offering like this to them to encourage them to keep using me as currently they just text when where ever they are keeping the stuff fills up, and I just hand load it into my pickup truck (or utility trailer depending on amount).

I have been thinking of ordering some of these https://www.uline.com/BL_1841/Poly-Box-Trucks and having enough to swap out at each location. It would just mean I need to bring the trailer everytime though as I would have no way to load them into the pickup bed when full. They also arent super cheap (but def much cheaper than full metal containers like you are using!)

Any way you can offer something others don't to ease your clients' workloads is the way to go! Long term, if fitting with your goals, lift gate on the truck would let you leave the trailer at home for smaller pickups. Also if you get a halfway decent sized hotel as a client - think your average Holiday Inn or larger - you'll start getting those rolling carts for free, especially if you can help reduce their landfill footprint by handling some waste that they have that is not yet ready for recycling (partial TP rolls, partial kleenex boxes, partial shampoo bottle, etc). You can also get extra ewaste from hotels by handling their lost and found. But hotels always have extra push carts of all different types like those U-line ones and are good irregular clients anyways.

Originally Posted by JJinLV

Any way you can offer something others don't to ease your clients' workloads is the way to go! Long term, if fitting with your goals, lift gate on the truck would let you leave the trailer at home for smaller pickups. Also if you get a halfway decent sized hotel as a client - think your average Holiday Inn or larger - you'll start getting those rolling carts for free, especially if you can help reduce their landfill footprint by handling some waste that they have that is not yet ready for recycling (partial TP rolls, partial kleenex boxes, partial shampoo bottle, etc). You can also get extra ewaste from hotels by handling their lost and found. But hotels always have extra push carts of all different types like those U-line ones and are good irregular clients anyways.

I had an extended stay hotel/apartment type place for a few months before the pandemic and in the span of like 3 months I got a load of 20ish hot water heaters, a load of like 20 bikes (that they cut off of a rack after it was there too long/been abandonned) and a whole bunch of other odds and ends. hotels/apt complexes are great. But during the pandemic the manager that I knew there either got let go or moved jobs and I havent been able to reconnect with the new one... (i tried but email went unanswered)

I should try to get some others...

Originally Posted by kss

(but def much cheaper than full metal containers like you are using!)

FWIW those 3x3x3 ones like the one filled with brass shells only cost me about $480 and can hold a little more than 2 55 gallon drums.