The successful, “The Apprentice” series took a change from the normal business tasks with Lord Sugar setting the challenge for the candidates to make money by setting up a waste collection business.
One of their key challenges was to spot value among the waste and to work out the profit they can make after disposal costs. The task was a good illustration of the “real life” challenges of operating in the waste management sector with contracts won or lost, deals to be made, hard negotiations with scrap dealers and builders that know the worth of their waste & the physically and mentally exhaustion of operating in a concentrated two-day period, which reduced one project manager to tears.
In the end, the difference between the winning and losing team was £6 on a turnover
of about £1,000, which shows that there is a profit to be made from waste especially from the recycling / reuse but maybe not enough to pay for their luxury lifestyle in the executive house provided by the series nor to pay for all the manpower and van used in the task.
For a limited time, the episode is available on the BBC iPlayer at www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer