Last week our neighbours had some trees chopped down, and my husband (never one to miss an opportunity!) asked the tree fellers if there was any chance he could have a few logs for the log burner.
They willingly agreed, and said that it would actually save them a load of hassle, rather than having to remove them from the site themselves, or put them through the woodchipper. The result is that we now have a full log store and it didn’t cost us a penny.
It occurred to me that if I was chopping down trees on a regular basis, and had a couple of trucks as they did, that I would set up a log business on the side i.e. using the by-product of my primary business to create a second one. Evidently there are various considerations such as drying them out, seasoning them, deliveries etc. but it makes logical sense to use one business to support another.
Another example is a friend of mine that makes jewellery. She realised that through the process of making her silver pendants, she was ending up with a lot of small offcuts of silver which were going to waste. She decided to melt them into balls, and flatten them with a patterned hammer to create simple but unusual stud earrings. No more wastage, and an additional source of income from something that was previously discarded.
Is there anything that your business produces that you could re-use or recycle in this way?