Monday, October 15, 2007

Interview with Chris Hasling from Home Recycling Ltd


How old are you?
40

What’s your occupation and who do you work for?
Managing Director, packer, sales manager, clerk, child minder for Home Recycling Ltd

How long have been doing this?
4 years

What’s the best bit about your job?
Loads of things!
Customers – only lovely people seem to want recycling bins. We don't deliver many orders ourselves now but when we do we are invariably invited in for a chat – I spent 2 hours at a drop once up in Richmondshire sharing a great dinner looking over the valley by the customers farmhouse.

Being able to make own decisions and carry as much stock as we want.

The building we work in is fantastic and full of natural light and great views of the Sowerby Bridge canal basin.

Not wasting time stuck in a car – we all either walk or catch bus to work and tend to brainstorm in the pub afterwards and watch the traffic crawl by

What’s the worst thing?
Always thinking about work but I used to do that when working for other people so at least it's more positive now

What have the last 12 months been like for you?
Massive! Had a new daughter Tess come on the scene – we all live below the warehouse so she has a constant impact on all of us. Saw employee number go from two to six. Doubled the range of recycling bins we stock and tripled turnover

What were you doing before?
Working for JCB Excavators in Barbados

What was your very first full-time job?
Hod carrier

Have you got any plans for the next 12 months you’d like to share with us?
Excavate cellar under building so we can have more storage and living space

What do you do to relax?
Cryptic crossword, a cider and a cigar

Who do you live with?
Wife Tania and daughters Nina 19 months and Tessa 6 months

Whereabouts do you live?
Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire

If you were Prime Minister, what’s the very first thing you do?
Close all the airports and takeover tv and radio stations

Have you got any guilty carbon secrets?
Fly once a year

What have you done that you were most proud of?
Been the father of two beautiful girls.

What are you most concerned about in the world at large?
Rising sea levels and the corresponding fight for resources

Which person in the public eye do you most admire and why?
I don't pretend to know anyone well enough in the public eye to admire them

What advice would you give to someone wishing to embark on the same sort of work as you?
Do it for both financial and ethical reasons. You're not doing anyone any favours by getting into it if you're not going to be any good and not going to enjoy it either. People in ethical business who cannot work in a businesslike way and business greenwashers make me fume in equal measure.

What's your website address?
www.homerecycling.co.uk

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