Government in waste - help or hindrance?

Whenever there is talk of waste and recycling, there is talk of how the Government can assist. Should it?

On the plus side, Government obviously has loads of cash, and can make all sorts of laws to reinforce the business model of a recycling business. It can mandate recycling of particular materials, put in place landfill bans, impose landfill taxes and subsidise recycling business.

But should it? Perhaps, under certain circumstances, however this is going to naturally lead to a certain type of industry. It will favour the large and established over the small and nimble. It will favour those who control the market over those who would disrupt it. It will favour the bureaucratic over the free-wheeling. It will favour monumental infrastructure over human scale business model innovations.

Government will take a risk averse approach and channel money to organisations that, whilst they might lead to significant improvement, will not lead to great improvements. Organisations that are exciting and disruptive, that might make massive changes, won't attract support because they could equally fail hugely. Government will look to minimise downside, not maximise upside.

Be this as it may, I would argue that the question is posed the wrong way. Instead, the better question is "should waste and recycling businesses seek Government support?" And I suggest that the answer is resoundingly "No!"

Chasing Government support takes a lot of effort. More importantly, the things you have to do to your business model to meet Government funding requirements will also cripple your business. You will start as a nimble organisation, reliant on none, and end up gummed up with a bureaucracy that you never believed possible. And certainly never needed.

In this field that is ripe for disruption, ready for upstarts, primed for somebody to change everything, you don't need to be wasting your time convincing the Government. Use that time to surround yourself with investors who get what you are trying to do and will help you get there.