Good day, fellow explorers. This is what we have for you on today's impact everywhere podcast,
there's gold in the garbage. If you look at the prosperity that can come from that garbage, we can create industry from that garbage, we can save money. By helping out environmentally based industry, we can limit the amount of money we spend in health care, by paying for expensive stuff to come from overseas, if we can make it domestically and we can support if we do all these things, then we are actually answering everything that we've been complaining about. Everything that we ever wanted, is here and it's in our garbage.
Hello friends and welcome to Impact everywhere the podcast that looks for people having a positive impact in unexpected places. Our guest today is Andy strays Feld, who is the VP of Business Development of a company called lifecycle revive lifecycle revive is a brand new company out of Brantford, Ontario that specializes in recycling PPE waste, as most of you probably know, there's been a massive shortage of PPE thanks to the pandemic. But similarly, the increase of usage of PPE has caused a massive rise in single use plastic pollution from the medical sector. And when we talk about PPE ways, we think about Blue sterilization, raps, mass downs, all these different kinds of polypropylene waste, that apparently has never really been recycled in the past. Now over the course of just one year, Andy and his co founders have managed to purchase machinery that has the capacity to divert over a million pounds of material per month from landfill and transform them back into usable pellets that can get back into new gowns, new mass and new sterilization routes. Now, although this is a pretty new company, and he has been in the medical and professional sales roles for over 15 years, and I really wanted to hear him start this conversation off by having him set the scene and explaining to us what the world of PPE is, like at this moment in time, and this is what he had to say.
As a former medical sales rep, in the last seven years, I've been selling consumables, and that's what masks and gowns and stuff are. We have not learned our lessons from any of these Hollywood disaster movies. And we will never learn we're I think rationally irrational when it comes to these types of stuff. So in the world today, there were three major medical suppliers. One in North America who I worked for, and two others that were based in North America, but made their stuff in Asia or Latin America, whatever it may be. And the selling point was always to the customer to the supply chain to the public. Look, you don't know when there's going to be a bad flu, you don't know when there could be another at that time, we were talking about h1 inland, or SARS, or even Ebola that came right after that we said guys, there is a trend towards pandemic. So you should be prepared. So as a sales rep and other sales reps going out there, we found this stunning apathy. When it came to buying stuff, people only buy a certain amount of masks, and also automatic gowns and whatever. And this was worldwide. This wasn't just North America, people's budgets were strained. Nobody wanted to keep stuff in their supply chains, and whatever. Now here comes COVID. And what happens, you had an initial panic, right at the COVID beginning, where there were good people who started depleting North American stock, so they could ship it to China, or they could ship it to India or ship it wherever there was a flare up. And that's great. From a humanitarian point of view, I support that. And that what happened was North American supplies dwindled, there was no more supply, you had both Prime Minister and President on both sides of the fence, trying to figure out how we're going to soldier this because we've got nothing my company had put me on the side because it says look, you'll get paid your salary, because there's just there's nothing for you to sell. And periodically, we would get scraps, and we would sell that and people would grab them. And it was almost like a very panicky wartime situation. And then came the flood of foreign PPE into this country, everybody in their brother was able to bring somebody in gloves, masks, whatever, maybe. And now all of a sudden Prime Minister Trudeau got worried 66,000 tons of PPE were gonna be now put into the landfill, on top of the 1000s of medical textile waste that's been going into landfill. And then people like myself, who were in manufacturing at the time, who were supporting the Canada made initiative, Ontario made initiative, depending which province you're in, started to realize, look, we got to do something about this. We're creating a lot of waste. And that's where I think a lot of like minded people across the world started interested in these box programs. Let's collect your waste. Let's collect your waste. Let's try to get it away from you. But then the problem was, where are we sending it? We can't send it the landfill. We got to find ingenious ways and some people found ingenious ways to send it to biofuel. And then we came on the scene and said we'll create a circular economy. We'll take this PP will melted down. We'll turn it back into the products and it'll just be circular thing and it should eventually not lead to anything going into landfill. It should be environmentally friendly. and it will create industry. And I think that's where we are today is that a lot of people are collecting, but not a lot of people know what to do with it. At least we know where we know what to do with it. But we haven't even begun the collection process yet.
That's fascinating. So this 66,000 tonnes of PPE that's put into landfill every year, to be fair was something that is a necessity, right? Like the reason all this PPE was being imported was through necessity for consumption to keep everybody safe. Correct, except that no one really thought about what happens to it afterwards. Now, I would say that the average person doesn't really think about what happens to the stuff that they consume at the end. So you're probably an outlier when it comes to this, right? When did you start caring about the end of life of a product,
it got accelerated right now, during the process where we were manufacturing goods, for the Canadian government, I would show up to visit the different sewers, you know, who were working on these projects. And I would see piles of scrap fabric just being placed in the black garbage bags and piling up, there was a facility in London that was in a Legion hall. And they had the stairs that go down to the basement. And they were on the main floor, it must be like a story down. So it must be like 2530 feet down. They were able to throw so much black garbage bags that the pile of bags came up to the street level that was so many bags of garbage waiting to go, that it just scared the heck out of me. And I said, Okay, look, we know some people in the industry, let's get some plastics people. And let's see what they can do with it. And they said, Surely, we can do this, we can take this stuff and turn it into pellets of the pellets can be sent elsewhere. And then further on in the COVID situation when we heard that Canadian manufacturing was kicking up and they needed supplies, because they couldn't get it. They said, Hey, guys, could you use our fabrics? Can you use our plastic pellets to make your masks to make your gowns and they said, sure we could. That accelerated the patriotic fervor of supplying the Canadian made initiative, as well as saving the environment as well as keeping stuff out of landfills.
So at the end of the day, it's this kind of big win, which is really wonderful. And so your journey started really when you started seeing the mass of waste that was generated because of its high concentrations, high demand that suddenly happened, it strikes me that this is something within the medical waste field, the amount of waste that is continuously generated is something that's been happening for decades. Why hasn't something like this happen sooner? Why hasn't anyone in the recycling industry decided that, hey, medical waste should be something that is upcycled? Was it willful ignorance? Is it just no one really looked there as it as an opportunity? Is there something really complicated about the recycling process? What is it? Why hasn't anyone done this before?
I think you hit two major points there that there was a selective apathy. Again, I'm going to use the word apathy, because it's not ignorance, people in the recycling business knows what they're getting and how they make money, we have to draw an association here, or a disassociation. medical waste comes in two forms, you have dirty medical waste, which is bloodied and red bag that goes into a red bag that goes into an incinerator. There's nothing you can do with that. That's a biohazard. But 80% of clean hospital waste happens. Before a patient ever comes in the room. Let me try to draw a picture quickly about this. There are two departments in the hospital that feed each other, there is the operating room that conducts the operations. And there's the sterile processing division downstairs or upstairs, depending where you are. And what they do is they sterilize the packages for the operation robbery norm. So what happens is at any given moment, the sterile processing department is going to wrap something up in a metal tray and they using this polypropylene plastic sheet, like a blanket, put in a sterilizer, take it out, send it to the operating room, the operating room will open these packages before the patient ever comes in before the surgery ever happens. And then what happens all this stuff gets thrown into a white bag or clear bag and put into the hallway. And then somebody and Environmental Services Porter or janitor will come and take this stuff down to the loading dock and throw it into a garbage bin. Now, that's a shame. And that is medical waste, that shouldn't be thrown in garbage that's clean. It's something that can be done. There's people out there who thrive in provinces and states in the United States of collecting five cent cans or bottles. It's an industry onto itself. And I'm saying Guys, there's more than enough room to make money in this and have an environmental business, where Look, all I need you to do is collect some bags, take it to a central facility, I'll pay you per pound to pick it up. And no waste haulers. It's not in our thing. You'd have to pay us a lot of money, or we'll pay whatever you want all there was always excuses. So I think the problem is that there's a very closed minded attitude from people in the plastics industry, who are the picker uppers of the stuff, but there is a very healthy appetite for those who want the stuff and ask me the question about those people.
Ah, fascinating but before reaching the people who are asking for it, let's talk about like how are you incentivizing all these medical folks to even go through the trouble of sorting through this plastic waste into different bags and making sure that you get the right thing like why would they want to contribute to you so in public domain We might have a bottle deposit program and studies have been shown that deposit programs help tremendously because now you're giving something that originally doesn't have any value or doesn't have any perceived value now has a tangible value that people can get rewarded for it. What is the business model like for you guys in order to get these hospitals on board to make it worth their time?
So traditionally, when we did this for a different company, now we're doing it for ourselves, the issue is threefold. You go to a hospital and say, Hey, listen, do you know right now you're spending probably like three to five cents a pound, to have somebody take away your medical waste and charge you for doing that. What I'm telling you the hospital is that you're going to save that three to five cents right now, for me just picking it up free of charge. And what's going to happen is that I'm going to return to you, in the sense of one to 2% of your yearly output, a donation to your Hospital Foundation, hospital Foundation's pay for new equipment, they pay for beds, they pay for things, initially, the hospitals, see the financial argument, hey, I'm saving money, and I'm not paying somebody to take away my garbage, but yet, I'm getting money for you just to come pick it up free of charge, that's a win. Then the second one is that nurses doctors drive a lot of this programs, there are very recycle minded, and they are the ones who are pushing for this type of hurt. So they're willing to help take a little step forward is sorting instead of two bags, now the three bags. And then finally, you have the idea of a circular economy, you have the idea. Now, this is the new argument for COVID, that it's a Canada wide support program, where now I'm doing something patriotic for my country, I'm doing something to save my environment. And by saving my environment, I saved the world environment. That is the three incentives that hospitals get, or medical people get, or even the public would get, if we were sitting with a company, like a retail company, they'll get the same pitch, I'll save you money, so you don't pay for somebody take away your garbage, I'll give you back an incentive for you know, being honest with this program. And lastly, you're gonna feel really good about yourself, because you're part of
it. I love that. And I love that you set it in that order too. Because if it wasn't first about saving money, you'd still have a lot of challenges to make people feel good. At the end of the day, there needs to be a business case for it. And so speaking of business, you mentioned wanting to talk about the people who are now purchasing these products back from you. What is special about the the final product that comes out of this recycling program? And why are people more interested in what you have to offer, then something that may come at a cheaper price from I don't know, China,
let's say thank you. And again, I want to be clear about what we're hoping to achieve here. Nothing is coming cheap out of anywhere anymore, like COVID had leveled the playing field right now in regards to what the going price for stuff was when a mask used to be made in China for two cents a mask. And North America is making a mask for 27 cents a mask. Let's say that price is up and that price is never going to come down for many reasons. Because the whole logistics the whole supply chain has been turned head over heels. What's different about what we're trying to pitch here and what we're trying to achieve is? Look, I'll take a step back oil companies that chemical companies via Alberta or Texas have always said you can't use recycled plastics for anything. You're never going to get the quality of stuff that you need. You got to be virgin, it's got to be fresh, made from good fashion, oil and chemicals. Alright, so you have a blizzard that cripple Texas that crippled the resin manufacturing process for North America and the world. You have a freighter that got lodged in the Suez for a week. And what happened people like me are getting bombarded with phone calls. I need your pellets now. Yeah, because I can't get any other fresh pellets. But the point is like this, if you can make things from recycled stuff just as much as you can from regular virgin, then we have to stop listening to that type of noise that type of naysayer, we have to say, look, COVID has proven that we have to take care of ourselves. And we are an industrious population in Canada, in North America and in the world. And we know we're heading towards the 21st century. It is Star Trek all over. We need to come to the grips that look, those 3% oil barons who are making money off of us our gasoline and chemicals and plastics teach us that they are there for a reason. They're not they're there for themselves and not for us. Recycling can help many things. I said it before it in a CBC piece. There's gold in the garbage. If you look at the prosperity that can come from that garbage, we can create industry from that garbage. We can save money by helping out environmentally based industry, we can limit the amount of money we spend in health care by paying for expensive stuff to come from overseas. If we can make it domestically and we can support if we do all these things, then we are actually answering everything that we've been complaining about everything that we ever wanted is here and it's in our garbage.
This idea of building local resiliency building community making sure that products stay domestic affordable, dependable, I think is definitely the theme of COVID So you're definitely hitting on all the right points, but still in the point of cost, though, ultimately, at the end of the day, you still need to be cost competitive and recycled materials versus virgin materials. How do you ensure that what you create after this pandemic, hopefully swings by how do you ensure that you can stay price competitive in the market? And I don't know if we're gonna go, like you mentioned two cents from from ask right now that used to be in China and 27 cents in North America. That's it 10x gap? What would that represent, like, in the future? Like, how do you see that playing out?
I think honestly, we have to look at it from a different point of view, we're never going to chase the worldwide market in regards to what we can be compared to Virgin we have right now with desire among Canadian manufacturers of PPE and medical textiles, who say, look, it's costing me something like 30 cents a pound us to bring something in now, from overseas from China, India, Pakistan, whatever it may be, but I can get it for you for 20 cents Canadian, which is much cheaper than that. And then we work with that we go forward with that. It's like, Hey, guys, down the road, you're going to be tempted, someone's going to come to you with a really good price. And then you're going to ask yourself, is the quality right? Are you willing to wait the six to eight weeks for food to come on the water? Are you really wanting to support an economy that didn't support you, there's going to be a lot of issues. But from our point of view, like for our company lifecycle, revive is going to make pellets for the Canadian market first, and then we'll discuss what we do further. And if it's not, if we're not going to support Canadian industry, either automotive, aviation, textile and clothing, food services, foodstuffs, or even PPE, if we're not going to supported that we're going to support ourselves, we're going to do it. So we can make our own products to sell back into the Canadian economy. And after Canada is taken care of, we can then address looking at the world. And I'll tell you, there will be a lot of people who are going to be looking at the quality and the quantity of what Canada can produce. And I wouldn't be surprised if we actually make a niche market for ourselves as a country, I think we will actually be sitting at the table going forward, US and other people like us. Got it. I
want to switch gears real quick to talk about like how you guys got started because lifecycle revive as a company is about one years old at this stage. And so that is a tiny amount of time, in which you basically quit your day job started this whole new thing and acquire the equipment, the distribution, logistics, everything in order to like make this happen. Walk me through that story. And how did you guys take a moment of crisis and transform it into one of opportunity
so quickly? On April 2020, our strategic partner, Nat Halabi, from rudo medical won a government contract for 5000 gowns, isolation gowns for the Canadian government, he called me to ask me to pick my brains because he used to be my customer. And I was still employed with my companies. I said, Sure, I'll help you talk to another friend. And we introduced him to a lady by the name of Lena Bowden. So Lena Bowden, and Carmina, the young, these are a small scale sustainable fashion designer in London, Ontario. And Carmina and Lena created a sewing initiative, bringing in newcomers to this country. And they started sewing cloth gowns. Several months later, they asked me to come and visit and talk to them about stuff. And that's when I saw the recycling. So oh, this is really bad. So I picked up the phone and I called Kurt Staley, from Optima plastics or Simcoe plastics. And he was the partner that I was working with my day job when I was working for Kimberly Clark medical. And I said, Look, you're the recycler for our products. Can you take on other people's stuff? And he says, Yes, I can. So I got them involved together. And by the time December rolled around, I was dissatisfied with my job. And with what was going on. I was a little bit I'll tell you that I was worn out. I was depressed. I just thought for minor mental illness. So I said to myself, I had just turned 50 years old. And I said, you know saying the first 50 years of my life is great, but I got to do something better with my next 50. So by the first week of January, I told my boss that I was quitting. And the CBC News article came out, I think about a week later. And much to my surprise, they announced me being their VP of Business Development. I didn't even know I didn't even have that conversation. I think they they saw the value of having me on board, they saw that I was leaving. And I thank them for that. This is a new lease on life. I've been hitting the ground running, I feel rejuvenated. I feel like I'm 35 again. So there we are.
That's wonderful. But then how did you guys even raise the money? So you take massive volume of stuff, and then you tear it down? You recycle it and then you recreate new PPE that supply chain takes forever to build up what were the steps in order to get there.
I gotta give props to the three partners Kurt Lena NAT is the money guy and like he was the one who made money on the government contracts. So he always had the liquid cash to help fill the gaps when it was needed. Lena I'll tell you is a proposal extraordinary person, she was able to get $2 million from the federal government through the engine funding program, the supercluster program, and Kurt and her work together to price out the machinery both here in Canada. And to bring in the foreign Textile Machine, I helped with a couple of contacts that I knew in Ottawa at foreign affairs to help them have people on the ground, take a look at the machinery overseas and arrange the planning of it. And by November, the money was granted, the purchases were made. And the first machine which is the pelletizer is installed here in Branford is going to be turned on next week. And the Textile Machine is on the water right now. And it will be here by at least the second or third week of June. And it should be installed and running after Canada Day. And yep, it was a record time. But look, in times of crisis, people pull together, and they find synergies that they never found before. And I was glad to be part of that synergy.
It sounds like very much that you Lina NAD, all three of you. Were basically really well positioned to utilize contacts knowledge, know how in order to make a difference in this specific moment in time when it comes to impact prior to doing this project prior to this opportunity, quote, unquote, landing on your lap. How did you think of your work experience and its ability to make a difference? Like Were you ever conflicted in the past and trying to find more ways to make a difference? And didn't know how or I don't know, there seems to be like a really interesting growth story here. And the reason I ask the question is because I think so many people in life, they go on through life, and they want to make a difference, but they don't really know how, and get frustrated. But sometimes it's just about being in the right place at the right time. And so I'm wondering if you had anything to say with regards to
that. Seven years ago, I came to this medical job from another career. So when you talk about medical sales, there's two types of people, capital salesmen who sell equipment, and consumables, which was what I was doing with sales, the everyday mass gowns and stuff, the sundries, and it was a life changing idea for me, because I had been a really good capital guy, but not really good in consumables. And I was given a really weird territory, I was given Atlantic Canada, Northern Ontario and Eastern Ontario. And I'm not trying to bore anybody here, but just paint the picture, I was the runt of the litter, I was the lowest paid rep, I was given this huge territory that really didn't care much about our product lines. A lot of these facilities had linen, they didn't want disposables in the north. Imagine we talked about landfills here in the south, but in the north, where you gonna put your landfill. All this plastics, a lot of people are very self conscious. So I had to learn right from the get go about our corporate sustainability. And it was very hard, because I'll give you the first geeky quote, I've recently watching the movie Moneyball. And this is the story of how they used to statistics to build a championship team back in 2002. And Brad Pitt plays, Billy Beane, who was the manager who led this and Peter brand is the gentleman that that he brought in to be the brain trust. And Peter brand said this, there is a stunning disconnect in how teams value their players. And so I approached that as there's a very stunning disconnect on how companies value their salespeople and what they sell. company needs to not only just focus on selling units and selling products, but they also need to focus on selling the repercussions of what they do. So if you're selling wrap, and you're selling masks, and you're selling stuff, and your customers bounce back and say I'm not buying it because it goes into landfill, this is an issue that they have to take care of. And they have to address it and not just not just sugar coated, not just window dressing, or greenwashing or whatever it is. So I had to take the point at the time, and there was always a criticism from my management team. While you're spending more time learning about that, you're not just doing sales, I said, I'll tell you something, I'll make more sales down the road. If I am educated and know how to counteract this major issue. It's not about money. And it's not about quality. It's the issue that we're selling something and we're not standing behind it. And that is something that it comes back to here. A lot of people want to do things. And I tell you just go and do it. Another famous quote from the gladiator right at the beginning, Russell Crowe addresses the troops and he says, what you do today echoes into eternity. That is what drives me. And that's what has driven me my whole life is that look, what I do today affects my future. What I've done yesterday affects my future. So don't be afraid. If you've got this idea that you want to do something, do it a lot of failure leads to a lot of success. And you're never alone with this. If you're if you like if you go for it, and you find that you didn't have at all, then build your team around you that will help you get you there. There is strength in numbers. And there is an ambition. And if you have an ambition, feed it do it. The worst you can do is fail, the best you can do succeed.
I love the movie quotes. I think they're really great. When it comes to passion, which I think you speak very well to hear it in your voice. This is clearly something that you're really excited about when you are passionate about something things are clear because the direction is clear. But prior to knowing Do you have any thoughts on finding the right direction to walk to so let's say let's rewind two years ago, you have a set of skills and you want to do more but you don't really know how to get started. What would you recommend to do in that point in time?
For me it was I looked at what it was there. I just continued Need to learn, I continue to preach the message of medical environmentalism. I did what I could to set up hospitals, I try to debunk the myths. I think the success that we have today came from two years ago, when I said to myself, I got to try to do something and just learn more and do more and question more and attack it from so many ideas and so many directions. And by doing that, I think I'll be satisfied with myself. And that's what I did. That's what kept me working. Like I could have quit my job at any time and go back into capital. But I was really excited about the idea that the relationships you build with your customers, the idea that you're selling a product that you can answer all the questions, and then it can be environmentally friendly. One day was something exciting. And two years ago, when I first met Kurt, and we started growing that relationship, that was the indication that we were on the right track. And that was, and we were doing the right thing.
I really loved that idea of saying what can I build today, that may be useful in the future. And so maybe now's not the right time to make this big switch in your life to quit your day job and do something that would be theoretically bigger, you can prepare for it. And the other point about building relationships with your customers, there are some things that are only built over time, right? And that quality that you're able to put into investing and learning more about the people what their needs are, what their problems are, so that when the opportunity strikes, you're in the right place, and the right time to capitalize on it is really wise. So thank you for those nuggets of wisdom there. I want to go back to the business model real quick and just talk through the different waste streams and like how are you enabling other people to participate? So far, we've talked mainly about hospitals. And so you've incentivized hospitals to sort their own medical waste so that they can have a cost savings and to do something more environmentally friendly and receive funding whenever receive a donation back to them part of how much waste they give you. So that seems really wonderful. But how are you enabling other larger institutions to participate in this, for example, a school that that has to wear these blue masks or a company that has to wear these blue masks? Is there a way to include more people into this business model that you're designing right now?
We've done some explainer videos that we put up on LinkedIn and Twitter, we're trying to educate people we're doing actually, we're working on something very cool. We're going to work on a marketing campaign right now based on Smokey the Bear in the sense that back then you don't play with matches don't don't play with fire, we're actually creating the adventures of polypropylene. And he is going to be the happy go lucky schmuck goes out the world, and tries to educate the world on on how you know, plastic recycling works and how people can fit into it. But answering your question, how we do it, it's very simple. We have three streams, we're tackling it from the end user, which is the hospital, we're tackling the other end user, which is the public, and then we're tackling the manufacturer. If we target those three people, we feel that we can eliminate 80% of the waste that's out there. So let's talk about the public. Like everyone else. There are companies like TerraCycle, green circle, salon, recycled go, these are my competitors. And these are in the field. And they're out there with their boxes that range anywhere from $80 to $150. And these boxes are placed in offices, dental offices, hospitals, general public places, people fill up these boxes, these boxes are picked up, and they're taken to a central facility where they just sit there because nobody knows what to do with that stuff. Some of them will send it to biofuel and and that's good. There's some pros and cons regarding biofuel and how environmentally friendly they are. Other people are going to call people like me and say, Hey, can you handle this stuff? Can you do something with it? And that's fine. And then so that's the public, right? We so we take that out of the retail space, we take that out of the home space. We've been talking to school boards here in Ontario. Now the problem is, it's very hard to do an experiment when we're on lockdown. So in the province of Ontario, right now I've had three or four school boards saying we want to do we want to play some of your boxes in our schools, some elementary some secondaries, some other specialty schools. But the general conversation came back, what can you do? Because you can't do anything right now because we're on lockdown. So we're looking at Quebec, we're looking at BC and Alberta, right now that we can approach these people say, Listen, can we run a pilot project with you? Can we test it with you and see where we're going manufacturing's very simple. They've been our best ally. Like they've realized that there's so much scrap sitting around their warehouses, that they would love it to have it taken away from them and not have to worry about the cost. And that's great. We do that. And then we're reaching out to the federal government say, Look, guys, you have offices, you have bases, you have facilities. Let's go in and let's put our boxes or big gigantic bins and let's get them out of your facilities and indoor play. So right now, there's a really good public momentum towards this hospitals, general public, and that's what we're tackling. And that's where I would invite anybody who wants to compete who wants to be part of this. I say go out and try to find these people go get these people get their stuff, call me on the phone or email me and I'll tell you, what we can do together to keep this stuff out of landfill.
Amazing. I love this idea of trying to invite more people to compete with you because at the end of the day success would be if everyone did it.
That's right. I just wanted to reach iterate something, me being a geek at all. I studied political science in history at York and shout out to all those York alumni and others out there. But remember one thing COVID is a war. Okay, as whatever way anybody wants to paint this picture, we're in a wartime situation it says versus the disease. And it's us versus the other proponents, the other people who are causing problems during this time like the I call them the PP pirates, the guys who are bringing in stuff from overseas and charging an arm and a leg and trying to rip off people. I call those people like war profiteers, but what I want to get at with this, sorry, is that back in World War Two, there were children, pulling their radio, fire wagons across town, picking up brass and tin and aluminum and whatever it is, and taking them to scrap yards. So those can be processed. So we could build shells, tanks and airplane fuselage. Today's plastic, the polypropylene, plastic poly, the PPS is no different than what they did back then. So the patriotic fervor should be guys, as long as you're wearing a mask and a glove, I think you can handle a dirty mask sitting on a beach or sitting in a forest, pick it up, put it in a bag and take it somewhere where those people can convert it to plastic goods. The day they called it the arsenal of democracy, how we were gonna beat the the naughty Nazis and all those other people was through the arsenal of democracy. That's what we need. The arsenal of environmentalism is what we're coining here. So if you can find the masks, you can find the PP get them to people like me, who can do something environmentally friendly and win the war against COVID.
Love that story and love that analogy. And just for context, why is it that the plastics from a plastic bottle isn't the right kind of plastics if that's P T. And in your case, you're using p p, which is polypropylene. Why are medical materials made out of polypropylene specifically,
probably probably was initially created for the hospital industry because it was hydrophobic. Hydrophobic means it can repel water. So when you are sterilizing a medical container, you don't want the medical container to be wet, because wetness creates a medium for bacteria and germs to grow. So you needed polypropylene to be part of that solution. But then what happens polypropylene started coming out into the general public. So let's use the example what is polypropylene today, yogurt containers are polypropylene. Half the plastics that you find in $1 store today is polypropylene PE plates, bowls, mugs, forks, flower watering cans, polypropylene is finding its way everywhere into this world. But I think what's happening is that the cities have their relationships with the people that buy their stuff. And they've never really gone to look at the polyethylene polypropylene, the Polly's they've never really went to look for those types of people, even though those people have been there and they're willing to pay good money over bad to get that stuff. The government's have just never really explored that world. And I'm asking him to revisit that and explore that world.
Very good. I wanted to ask a question about circularity, you've used the word a number of different times and say that you are circular business, which means that you're able to close the loop on materials where so you're collecting USD masks that are made from virgin material, you're moving them into your facilities, you're converting them back into new materials that people can then use again, how are you ensuring that this system stays a closed loop? And it doesn't get lost in that cycle? As it gets resold and remanufactured? Are you only selling to the people who are already part of your program in order to ensure that they're bought into the system? Or are you not that discerning at this moment in time?
It's a good question. And, and I would like to say that we're not a monopoly here, we're not looking to keep the plastic way for the masses. Right now, the worldwide shortage of polypropylene is everyone is coming to our door and willing to pay more than normal prices for the polypropylene pellets. Our commitment to the circular economy is we ask whoever wants to be part of the circular economy to be the first in line to get the stuff. So right now Canadian PP, there's almost six or seven of them right now, standing in line, giving me their stuff for free and willing to buy their stuff back, once it's pelletized that will eat up a lot of the the production that's made, then our own manufacturing line lifecycle health when they start producing gowns, and, and other things, we'll eat some of that production as well, whatever is left, we would definitely like to open up to the market. And what we want to do is we want to open it up to a market that's going to agree to be part of the recycling process. So it's not like I want to put this on a ship and send it overseas and say goodbye to it and think something nice is gonna come out of it. I like to think that hey, so and so company from Providence will tell you what let will sell to you, but you got to promise me one thing, you're going to advertise to your customers or you're going to allow me to advertise to your customers that I want to take that stuff back when it's used. So let's say we do talk to a non medical, let's say we talk to an automotive guy. And let's see, I don't know the name but let's say GM or Ford. Look GM Ford of Canada, you're going to put polypropylene in your cars. That's fine. Now, I can't expect that I'm ever going to see that polypropylene Back with do me a favor any other polypropylene product that comes back to you in form of waste, make it up, like sending it to us and be part of the circular economy, it's hard to answer the question because at the end of the day, there's going to be more enough people who are going to be part of this thing, or, Hey, I can make a mask and then have my customers send it back to you. Yeah, great. Let's do it. And that's it. It's the other people like the food manufacturing or automotive manufacturing, that's going to take this stuff, you expect to say goodbye to it. But then again, it's in the form of a car. So what's going to happen is, eventually, that dashboard, or that bumper that's made from polypropylene is going to be used by some guy who's scooping up his car, or somebody who's buying a replacement part because they had a fender bender. So in a way, it serves its purpose, and we'll try our best to reclaim it.
I think that's the entire problem with the recycling industry as a whole, it isn't so much that the materials that are created aren't necessarily recyclable. It's how do you make sure that once it reaches its end of life, that it can actually go back to where it needs to, rather than make its way somewhere else. And the deposit program that we're referencing a little bit earlier is one of those ways that you can ensure extremely high collection rate if done properly, in collaboration with local local municipalities and so forth. And so, when we talk about the word circularity, I often see it as the difference between circularity and recycling is something that might happen once circularity is truly ensuring that you can close the loop. So it happens over and over again infinitely by somehow making sure that process stays accountable or transparent so far, so what if and this is I don't know if it's possible, but could you sell something at a 20% premium and give that pound for pound back? The amount of polypropylene that you gave them in the first place? Would that ever be something that the industry would be ready for? Based on your experience in the field?
I think I can only answer for myself. And I'll tell you, that's a fantastic idea. The same way we're doing it for the hospitals, I don't see why we can't give back in the form of a deposit program. And I think what we'll do is we will listen to like minded individuals like yourself, we will listen to that and see how the finances can do it. Look, we're not making huge amount of money on plastic recycling, like the government was very clear, we'll give you the money, you're not allowed to lose money, but you're allowed to make money. So the point is, as long as we don't lose money, that's fine. And as long as we make some small amount of money to pay the bills, and everybody's happy, and guess I don't see a problem, why we can return it, I think you're right, the future is going to be some sort of deposit program somewhere and how that works. That's going to be my next lifelong ambition. After this is done. Cool.
I can't wait to see that happen. All right, we have a couple people up here on the stage, I'm sure have some questions for you. So MC K, would you like to drop a comment, question contribution?
Hey, if I'm wrong, last year was thanks for having me out. And I think all the energy that you've brought today is just really, really awesome. And I think when Vaughn was saying before how you have so much passion, energy in you, it really comes out in the way that you're sharing. It's just really life giving to beyond this conversation with you. Thanks, Jim. I also love that you're bringing in all this movie related stuff, as you share with us about your journey. And some of the ways you're thinking about this. I want to know what the title of the life cycle revive story will be in a few years, when you talk about this journey and the impact that you're going to be able to make.
Thank you very much. I really didn't I really didn't think of this out what what title we would put in it, but I think it would be something like I wouldn't say it wouldn't be a band of brothers, but I think it was gonna be a band of citizens. Something that shows the the partnership of what we're doing here today is that we brought people together from all walks of life, to try to do something right. And we're not really interested in hearing the negatives, we want to focus on the positives. So I think the issue is that there's gonna be a lot of people saying, oh, Andy, you're out to lunch, your Pie in the Sky Dreamer is never gonna happen. You're gonna be out of business in a year, telling the truth, I would love to be out of business. But I'd like to be out of business if somebody takes over my business, because that means somebody really wants to do what I do and do it well. So I think, leave this with me for a couple more months. And hopefully, Vaughn will bring me back on and I'll have the title of our movie, but I think strengthen numbers passion for the for the country, we were called upon, these are patriotic things that I think we should focus. That's what we're, we're working on. We're not doing it for the metals, and we're not doing it for the money. We're doing it for the environment and for the future. And I think that's the key here.
I love that. What a great question. I'm CK Andy, I think this needs to be a movie you need to actually make this into a marketing piece. At some point.
We are doing a marketing piece. We have a screenplay written now for eight episodes, and we're going to launch it eventually. My biggest problem is and I'm going to reach out to anybody here who is a 3d video animator if you want a gig. I'm prepared to pay because I have the money to spend what we want to do is we want to create this Adventures of polypropylene where's this happy go lucky schmuck who who evolves into like this plastics Crusader, this plastics warrior. And along the way, it's almost like the little stuff But from town to town, he makes his changes until he just like one of those Spaghetti Westerns where he just disappears into the horizon. And Paul has done his job. So we've got the screenplay. We've got the voiceover actors, I'm making a call out there for anybody artists that can can do 3d realistic animation. I want to make this Pixar quality. I'm not I don't care about winning festivals, you guys can take the claim for that. I want the message out there like a Smokey Bear type of campaign which will resonate into a new generation, which will understand what we have to do and do not about environmentalism, at least plastics, environmentalism.
Alright, Rachel, welcome up to stage do you have a question, comment or contribution that you'd like to jump to Andy?
Good morning, Andy, this has been amazing. Thank you for sharing. I don't know much about the recycling world. So it's interesting to hear. I guess the one comment I have is, when you were talking about the adventures of polypropylene. I was thinking it was Polly like P O ll y, like a feminine adventure, or superhero. So I just want to suggest maybe do Paul and poly propylene, like the duo and include a feminine character into that story. So if that's all I wanted to say, cuz that's what I envisioned. And then you as you started talking about, I realized it was Paul instead of Pauline. So yeah, but thanks again, for sharing everything. It's been really informative.
Rachel, thank you very much for that. And I didn't want to get into much conversation. But believe it or not, there is a very strong female protagonist the role, Polly can't do it alone. The same way that I can't do it alone, there is a very strong female protagonist, who throughout the series is pretty much the person who makes things happen. While Polly is the one who exposes it, there is the person who actually does it. And I was so happy that our screenwriters actually empowered the hero to be somebody other than Polly. So rest assured, there might not be maybe we can call her Pauline, or whatever it is. But definitely, you'll be surprised when we find in lashes that that there is a female protagonist who is actually the true hero of the story. That's great to hear.
Thank you.
I actually love this idea of I do too. And it just sounds it sounds really good.
We're trying right now it's outside of the cab. This is more of a vanity project, I think, than anything else. So not vanity in the sense that I want to be known for anything I want other people to be known. So right now, we are working on getting a GoFundMe or a Kickstarter for this, because it's not for my industry. It's for all of plastics, and everybody who's out there. So stay tuned, if you want to be part of this in the production phase, call me if you want to be part of this, and then funding. Let von Wong know. And I'll let everybody else know when that's out there. Like I said, the key here is that we have a new generation of people and we have to change the paradigm is no longer acceptable. For the norm, we need to shoot for a higher norm, we have to shoot for a better future. And I keep liking it to the future of a Star Trek or whatever it is where it's not pie in the sky. And it's not utopia, I know there's going to be people who are going to be naysayers, and there's always going to be someone who's going to try to break it down. But at the end of the day, it's like this look, we have to agree that we need something better than what we have today. And if we can agree on that, then we can achieve that. And that is what I want to empower everybody with this show. And this message and Vaughn for bringing on thank you again for allowing us to empower the future. And I think polypropylene is message, our message any ideas that you put forward that can help society is what we need today. Because COVID has proven that what we did in the past failed us miserably.
Amazing. And on that note, Andy, would you like to let people know how they can reach out to you? How can they find you if they were inspired by this conversation and want to participate in either this Kickstarter or even to partner up with the recycling that you're doing?
Please reach me at info at lifecycle, revive all one word.ca Go to our website, lifecycle. revive.ca take a look at our explainer videos. Take a look at what we stand for. There is an information page there for you to fill in all your contact info, it comes straight to my email. And I will dedicate every day to least call as many people as I can where we were two years ago and where we are today. It's a testament to what's going on here. And I'll just say the quote from Winston Churchill, it was during World War Two and it's one of the reasons why I quit my job and he says fear is a reaction. Courage is that decision. Be courageous. Make that decision. Be courageous. Don't let fear be the reaction that drives you. And thanks again, von Wong and everyone for giving us the opportunity for speaking to you today. Like I said, info at lifecycle revive.ca I will reach out to each and every one of you and try to figure out how we can help.
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