Curbside recycling helping schools
By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward Bureau
KAILUA — Bryce Sprecher has found a way to succeed in the curbside recycling business where others failed.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
Starting with only two customers early last year, Sprecher has built a service — the only one of its kind in Hawai'i — that not only helps the environment and benefits schools, but makes money.
Bryce Sprecher used to be a substitute teacher but felt the pay was too low. Now he gives "back to the kids" by collecting recyclable items for a fee and giving them to schools to sell.
His company, O'ahu Community Recycling, is poised to expand from the Windward side into East Honolulu, and he has caught the interest of the city.
"Bryce is forging a new frontier," said Suzanne Jones, city recycling coordinator. "We're very curious to see how well he does and whether he'll be able to establish something we might build on."
For about a year and a half Sprecher, 29, has picked up aluminum, paper, glass and plastic from home subscribers in Kailua.
But rather than selling the material to a recycling center — the way most traditional recycling efforts have made their money — Sprecher donates it to O'ahu's schools. His income comes from a fee paid by the home subscribers.
The schools, in turn, earn about $30 for every full 20-by-8-foot container in a city-sponsored and -supported program.
With some schools scheduling pickups three times a week, the money adds up, paying for such things as field trips.
At about the same time it began the school recycling program, the city also initiated a curbside recycle pickup project in Kailua.
Although successful at the homeowner participation level, it lasted only 18 months before the city decided it was too expensive to expand islandwide, Jones said.
Labor costs usually exceed the value of the material picked up, and the fee to cover the cost of pickup is often higher than people are willing to pay, Jones said, making curbside recycling difficult to do successfully.
Sprecher's company began in Lanikai early last year with two customers.
Today, with two more employees, it serves about 260 in Kailua and along Kane'ohe Bay Drive.
Sprecher charges $12 a month for two pickups and provides two 18-gallon bins. This year, he has picked up enough material to fill two school bins each month, he said.
The money earned is enough to survive on, Sprecher said, adding that he works at the job full-time and his employees/partners have side jobs.
Expansion this month to Waimanalo and Hawai'i Kai should increase his income but he's not focused on earning a high wage, he said.
Once the business is stable, he'd like to conduct educational programs about recycling in schools.
The former substitute teacher said he decided to leave education because it didn't pay well, but "I was trying to think of a way I could give back to the kids."
