I have been waiting for this day for a few months as this is only 10 ton of what was originally requested being 32 tons. This is seriously valuable fabric waste which is just unavailable and took me many months to find. This is why you can never give up because it is for you to find. I do not see this find as lucky, but more of a pay off for perseverance. Doing things right is all I know and why this material was the missing ingredient to take the product to the next level.
This type of material filler is so rare this is normally exported except I have now talked them into supplying me whatever is produced. This is a waste by product in a process when they take textile fabric back to cotton.
This process is quite complex as the fabric waste is washed and dried then shredded and then a finer shredding before it becomes loose fibers which are then spun onto massive rolls and dispatched back to the textile industry. What you see here is the waste recovered from the bottom of the machines. There are very few recycling centers that do this and this is South Africa's only plant that does this and why this waste filler is so rare.
A close up shot shows you how fine and dense this really is which does create new problems, but these are good problems. The material we have been using up till now has to be compacted as it does not hold any weight. This on the other hand does so I need to experiment to see how this is going to be used.
Over the last week we ran into problems as the team doing the filling of punch bags did not follow the instructions. I had some other heavier material which I sourced and they still compacted when they were told not too. This resulted in bags that should have been 38 Kg's being as much as 54Kg's.
Any normal person would see that and why there is a process of each bag being weighed before it is signed off for final packaging. This is the second time within a week I have had to stop and start again explaining and showing what has to be done. I kid you not this is simple yet has them confused because they were under the required weight being light before and now they are way over being heavy.
Today I have spent the entire day fixing the problem and we are basically back up to speed. This new material that arrived today would create havoc ad why this will not be touched until this current order has been completed. I can literally see a 38 Kg bag being over 70kg's if they use this.
What I have doe is taken the punch bag weights to what they were 10 years ago and what was a 20 kg bag is now an 18 kg bag. I see no need in this and I am giving the customer what they want for the same price. No one is being short changed here and what sets us apart from our competitors.
Once I get the mix right as this will now be a combination of various material fillings and only then will I have achieved what we set out to achieve. This is only month 3 so we have already moved the quality ahead of other suppliers locally and internationally.
Once this has been achieved then I need to find another recycling factory similar to the one in SA. This will be gearing up for another plant targeting the European market. This is still a year or two off and will be far more experienced and knowledgeable in this market by then. This is all about the learning process trying to be the best you possibly can.