"Value Added by Recycling Industries in Massachusetts" was an article I published in July 1992, in my first few months of my appointment as "Recycling Director" at Massachusetts DEP. Footnotes to the report live on, and I feel sure I must have a hard copy somewhere, but I cannot find it online any longer.
Drive around the parking lots of your competitors.
Count the cars.
Use the cars to estimate the number of employees.
Some staff may be absent, some may have carpooled, some processors may be more efficient than others. But generally, if you circle 100 paper recyclers parking lots, the ones with just a few cars are less likely to be baling the same amount of material. The larger ones will actually bale more per employee or more per car perhaps (due to larger, higher efficiency balers), and the smaller ones may employ more people per ton. But you have a point of reference.
Drive around the parking lots of your competitors.
Count the cars.
Use the cars to estimate the number of employees.
Some staff may be absent, some may have carpooled, some processors may be more efficient than others. But generally, if you circle 100 paper recyclers parking lots, the ones with just a few cars are less likely to be baling the same amount of material. The larger ones will actually bale more per employee or more per car perhaps (due to larger, higher efficiency balers), and the smaller ones may employ more people per ton. But you have a point of reference.
