Talking trash is big business for recycling entrepreneurs. According to David Kirkpatrick, founder of KirkWorks, an environmental economic development firm in Durham, North Carolina, 1996 revenues for the resource recovery industry were $14.3 billion. "I think that's probably an underestimate," says Kirkpatrick, whose firm organizes recycling investment forums and conducts economic impact studies.
Industry growth has been largely centered in the post-consumer-waste sector, fueled by concern for the environment and limited landfills. A sign of that growth is the increasing interest in investing in start-up recycling firms. KirkWorks helped organize an annual investment forum in 1995; by late 1998, it will participate in four annual events nationwide. And that could be just the tip of the trash heap-er, iceberg.
This article was originally published in the December 1997 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Top Picks.
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