Calgary entrepreneur rides recycling boom
There’s an old saying that one person’s junk is another man’s treasure.
You could say Zakir Hussein has taken that concept and turned it into a successful business venture.
In 2009, Hussein started Organo Energy Inc., a holding firm that researches and innovates new biotechnologies to enhance sustainable development and environmental management in Calgary.
From that, he created Alberta Clean Technologies Ltd., a one-stop free collection service offered for restaurants’ recycled wastes of plastics, cardboards, used cooking oils and cans.
Today the company has eight employees.
When he started the business, Hussein was just going into his second year at the University of Calgary taking petroleum geology. He will complete that degree in 2013. He has also started his second degree at Harvard University in Boston in environmental management.
In July, the federal government moved ahead with a two per cent renewable content requirement in diesel fuel and heating oil — the impetus Hussein needed.
So in October, he created Alberta Clean Technologies as a subsidiary of Organo Energy.
“We collect and refine renewable oil from restaurants, the cooking oil,” he says. “And we found that plastics were going into the garbage. Why don’t we collect these for free as well? As well as cardboard.
“We’ll bale it. We’ll shred it and we’ll recycle it for you.”
Hussein’s venture earned him the 2012 Student Entrepreneur Alberta Champion from the Advancing Canadian Entrepreneurship organization.
Hussein says the cooking oil is refined and sent to biofuel-producing plants across Canada. Also, cardboard and plastic are sold as a commodity to pulp mills for renewable products.
Hussein says the company will place a free shed or bin at a restaurant and will empty it out on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.
“Our goal is to help calgarians by providing an economical and environmental future,” he says.
The company’s main clients today are restaurants, hotels and shopping malls.
“Everyone wants to go green and environmentally friendly,” Hussein says. “And I don’t think it’s just going to leave right away. It’s going to be around for awhile.