In 2005 a 22 year old starry eyed Aussie with no experience in recycling decided to move to Hong Kong to become a recycling tycoon.  Sixteen years later Damien van Leuven continues to lead and grow his business Vanden Recycling into the UK, Ireland, Finland, Spain, Turkey, UAE, Holland and Australia.

The conundrum of recycling (plastics) is replacing throw away items with more throw away items.  Damien and his team have worked hard to create a sustainable business that has a bank vault of recycling knowledge to help countries recycle and trade their waste.

Recycling plastic at its core revolves around oil and natural gas as the commodity items used to make plastic that we use everyday in our clothes, drink bottles, computers, phones and just about everything else on the planet.

A portfolio “tilt” is industry slang for an investment strategy that overweighs a particular investment style. An example would be tilting to small-cap stocks that have historically delivered higher returns than the stock market. Overweighing to a style is always done with the expectation of achieving a higher return or higher risk-adjusted return than the market.

“Going green” or being “environmentally friendly” used to be thought of as an idealistic endeavor pursued at the expense of revenue and profits…not anymore.

Listen to this podcast to understand more about recycling but also to recognize the opportunity this space will have in the future as government regulation means more bottling and plastic companies are required by law to be 100% recycling.