Our History
Total Green Recycling is a young company using a fresh approach to solve today’s growing waste problems with enthusiasm and conviction. Incorporated on the 2nd of June 2008, under the name of That Guy’s Recycling Pty Ltd, brothers Michael and James Coghill decided to build a business in the relatively unknown, emerging e-waste recycling industry. How these young men managed to start such a business is quite a unique and interesting story.
Operating out of a 400m² commercial site in Bibra-Lake TGR began offering e-waste recycling services to local councils across WA.
The business grew quickly and had outgrown its first premises within only 12 months. The decision was made to expand to a larger (1500m²) facility in U2 20 Murray Rd South in Welshpool where the company now operates today.
As can be expected in many start-up operations and with flow-on effects experienced here in WA from the global financial crisis, the company posted losses in its first two years of trading. However with continued investment in research, development and capital infrastructure the business has grown substantially and is well on its way to posting a net profit for this financial year (2011), the companies third year of trading.
Some of TGR's major developments & achievements to date:
| 2008 | Operational capacity = 500T E-waste p.a. |
| September | Commenced operations – U1 34 Bushland Ridge, Bibra-Lake,WA |
| 2009 | Operational capacity = 1,200T E-waste p.a |
| August | Expansion & relocation to new premises – U2 20 Murray Rd South Welshpool, WA |
| October | CRT glass processing plant established |
| November | Commenced trading as Total Green Recycling (new business trading name registered) |
| 2010 | Operational capacity = 1,200T E-waste p.a |
| January | Plastics processing plant established |
| June | SWIS Grant awarded by the WA Waste Authority to assist in developing a local W.E.E.E. plastics recycling solution |
| October | Program established with Rocky Bay Employment Services which provides gainful employment opportunities for people with disabilities |
Please also see News & Projects to read about some of our other exciting projects currently in progress
Total Green Recycling (TGR) has established itself as both a successful and competitive, locally owned and operated enterprise. With specialized operations in E-waste Recycling TGR now competes in WA with large multinational corporations such as Sims Recycling Solutions in this new and important industry. Who knows what the future may hold for TGR, however with growing awareness of the importance of sustainability & the environment and with the growing wave of green businesses and industry we believe the company is well positioned for strong growth and we remain very optimistic about the future of our company.
The Total Green Recycling Story Continued
Approximately 18 months earlier, whilst still at university, the two young entrepreneurs set about collecting scrap metal off the side of the road during bulk verge rubbish collection days as a way of earning a few extra dollars on the weekends. They quickly learned that copper was by far the most valuable and common source of scrap metal and that it could be easily found in ordinary household appliances such as microwaves and washing machines. Setting out with a map of the local council verge collections and armed with the most basic of tools borrowed from their fathers garage, Michael (21) and James (18) got to work and began pulling apart as many of the microwaves and washing machines they could find on the side of the road so as to get to the copper and other scrap, collect as much as would fit in the boot of their car.Well after a few weekends of collecting several hundred kilograms of scrap metal the boys decided to take down their findings and sell it at their local scrap metal yard. As it turned out they had collected a nice little sum, however after accounting for the cost of fuel and the time invested they worked out they were only earning around $5/hr which was not at all inspiring. However not giving up and determined to improve they decided to re-invest most of their earnings in purchasing better tools and convincing their father to let them borrow his trailer to increase their collection capacity. The boys continued their verge collections and found many more sources of copper including CRT TV’s and Monitors which were very common items being thrown out.
A few more weeks went by and after explaining their little earner to a friend who then referred them onto a friend who was wanting to buy whole used as second hand monitors. Seeing an opportunity the boys met with the buyer, negotiated a price per monitor set to work collecting, testing and cleaning the 800 working monitors needed to fill the 40’ container required by the buyer. In January 2008, after many hundreds of hours of hard slog the boys had their 800 container.
The container was shipped off and the net result was a few thousand dollars in the bank (unfortunately still only around $5/hr, but never the less a profound learning experience). However the boys were faced with yet another problem, what to do with the waste product, consisting of hundreds of broken and non-working monitors that had now overgrown their fathers shed? Well this question formed the basis of the company’s current business and continues to inspire new and innovative solutions for dealing with problem waste streams.
Whilst maintaining their busy study schedules at university and working at few odd jobs at night and on the weekends, the boys set about researching heavily into what to do with all different aspects of the monitors and other equipment they had collected including circuit boards, plastic, scrap metal and CRT glass. By June of 2008 they had created a business plan, registered a company structure, raised a small amount of start-up capital, secured a lease on small premises in Bibra-Lake, and That Guy’s Recycling Pty Ltd (TGR) opened for business
Last Updated on Jun212011