Trashy Business, The Future of Headphones, and Small Business In The Big Apple
The Trashiest $32 Billion Business You’ve Ever Seen
When it comes to owning your own business, there are certain tasks that require you to roll up your sleeves and get a little dirty. More often than not, however, these entrepreneurial tasks are figuratively, not literally, dirty. That definitely isn’t the case for Adrian Paisley, whose business and business model was recently written about in an article featured in the New York Times. Paisley might look like a survivalist, often driving around a large truck and trailer filled to the brim with an assortment of broken and tossed-to-the-curb goods, but he’s a serious entrepreneur, one whose business is part of the $32 billion generated each year by recycling scrap metal.
Because certain materials, especially metals, are becoming more and more difficult to find “out in the wild” - and because global demand continues to increase - a new breed of entrepreneurs is emerging, capitalizing on the “tidal wave of trash” that Americans are so good at producing. (In the New York Times article, it goes on to say that “Americans make up just 4 percent of the world’s population, but we account for 12 percent of the planet’s yearly waste,” which means we are the biggest producers of trash per capita.
Paisley, along with other recycling business professionals (who range from family-owned businesses to giant multinational corporations), scour our trash, looking for profit in the form of, for example, copper wire. Using an app called iScrap, you can check the going rate for different metals and materials, choosing to cash in or hold on depending on prices. Currently, the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) reports that there are more than half a million people in the United States employed by the scrap industry, a number that surpasses everyone in America who works as “computer programmers, web developers, chemical engineers and biomedical engineers combined”.
While China has long been consuming all of the scrap metals it can get its hands on in order to keep up with industry demand, Americans are quickly catching on. Of course, it’s up to the scavenging entrepreneur to decide whether they’ll hand their metals and other valuable finds over to China - or dedicate them to their own local economy.
The Real Future of Headphones
While it might seem like everyone who’s anyone has their hands on Apple’s AirPods, the truth is that most experts agree that model is not “the future of headphones”. A stepping stone in the right direction, and a nod to the evolution of human communication, AirPods seem to overlook something important: Our instinctual need as a species to be connected not just to media, but to the real world and people around us.
Frog Design, which has been around for half a century and has firsthand experience with the evolution of design, believes that the next logical (and critical) step for headphones is to underscore an immersive experience, rather than one that focuses primarily on isolation. Following this train of thought, the innovators at Frog believe that “consumers will want headphones that support augmented audio experiences without disrupting their real-world communications”.
What that will look like (or better sound like) is still, of course, completely elusive. One Forbes writer suggests that it will be something like “Google Glass for your ears”. Either way, all bets are on headphones that don't just impact how we listen to music, but rather ones that completely change our auditory existence.
What’s Happening with Small Businesses in New York
Small local businesses, the kind that charm you as you pass by on your way to work, seem to be especially elusive these days, especially on the streets of certain New York City neighborhoods - and it has local politicians concerned. According to a recent article, “vacant storefronts taking up as much as 20% of some retail areas of Manhattan and Brooklyn”.
In an effort to help, the local City Council just passed a law that requires “landlords to register the status of their retail space, with updates when businesses come and go”. While it might not seem like a huge step in helping small businesses stay in business, the hope is that it will give the city an idea of what’s going on (especially in terms of ever-increasing rent) before it happens, a professional pulse on the local economy.
Although the economy has been making gains over the last several years, New York City locals (and dozens of other metropolitan areas around the country) are concerned that these vacant retail spaces will do considerable damage, changing the whole way the city looks and feels.
Of course, one of the biggest arguments is to simply cap the rent required for these small businesses. Unfortunately, these simple solutions tend to get sticky as you start to look more closely at what’s really going on. Steven Soutendijk, the executive managing director at Cushman & Wakefield, a New York City staple in commercial real estate, notes that “landlords still have to pay for maintenance, property tax, the mortgage…”, which are all, of course, prone to regular increases. Soutendijk goes on to say that, without making any income from a commercial space, “there’s almost no reason why any owners would want a space”, leaving city officials stuck in limbo, finger on the pulse with little to do when the heart rate drops.