Submissions >> Rami Nofal and Eric Taft: Spring Back Recycling

By: Rami Nofal(left) and Eric Taft(right) Major: Eric’s Major: Social Entrepreneurship | Rami’s Major: International Business (Marketing and Arabic), Finance, and Economics, with a minor in Political Science Class of: May 2013 posted in: Be Belmont, Contributors, Undergraduate, Videos

Belmont Church’s Isaiah 58 Ministry Partners with Belmont University Studnets to Start a Social Enterprise that Create Jobs for Formerly Incarcerated Men by Disassembling and Recycling Component Parts of Used Mattresses.

Eric Taft and Rami Nofal are juniors at Belmont who share an interest in community development and entrepreneurship. As active members in Belmont’s SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise) chapter, the two enjoy participating in new opportunities that create positive change, which has most recently led to the development of Spring Back Mattress Recycling, a project Rami and Eric helped spearhead.

 

 

 

 

Spring Back Recycling (www.springbackrecycling.com/) is a non-profit managed by Belmont University’s SIFE program, in partnership with Isaiah58 (www.belmont.org/isaiah58/).

Spring Back’s purpose is to create and support a mattress-recycling model for non-profits that serve the homeless and disenfranchised. By creating a replicable business model, the organization hopes to expand its efforts to empower homeless men and women through employment and small business training while recycling components of used mattresses, which reduces disposed mattress’s negative environmental and monetary impact on landfill.

Men from Isaiah 58, and students from Belmont SIFE spent a full year developing the business model for Spring Back, analyzing logistics, accounting, marketing, legal contracts and safety procedures to generate a scalable business plan and operations manual. In addition, the Isaiah 58 ministry provided an available facility, equipment, as well as an eager and capable workforce for the start-up business. Isaiah 58’s School of Life ministry is a residential program that helps formerly incarcerated men get back on their feet.

At the base of Spring Back’s economic model is scrap buyers paying for the raw materials that come from the disassembly while local citizens, mattress retailers and institutions pay a small premium of their landfill tipping fees to Spring Back, knowing it provides a more environmentally friendly option to get rid of used or damaged inventory. Due to its profitability, sustainability, and even scalability, Isaiah 58 and Belmont SIFE hope to further develop all facets of the start-up business and possibly share the model with other like ministries in other U.S. cities.

Spring Back Recycling, this is how Rami and Eric are Belmont.

To find out more about Belmont visit, www.BELMONT.edu

To find out more about Spring Back visit, www.springbackrecycling.com/

To find out more about Isaiah 58 visit, www.belmont.org/isaiah58/

To learn more about SIFE visit, http://www.sife.org

 

 

To learn more about Belmont University visit, www.belmont.edu
This entry was posted in Be Belmont, Contributors, Undergraduate, Videos and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.