Micro loan needed for buying or building a bike trailer

Recently there has been some talk about starting a compost collection system in Milwaukee as part of the Victory Garden Initiative and therefor under the banner of transitioning. Part (half?) of the money collected for the pick up fee would be for the VGI and the other half for those who pick up and deliver the compost. I would be thrilled to see this started and essentially start collecting myself. I don't own a car, but own a sturdy touring bike and see no problem in bike collection. The idea is to get restaurants (and possibly homeowners) interested in paying a small fee for a scheduled pick-up of waste that could be composted and would otherwise be sent to the dump.

My idea with the micro-loan is to have one or more persons donating part of the amount needed for a trailer (I would provide as much as I could at the time) so that it would be possible to start this project sooner than later. I work two part-time jobs, but it still takes me a while to save for the cost of one trailer. There are some restaurants who are already willing to pay if they have a reliable pick-up day. If anyone is interested in helping to start this project, please send me a message. I have come across someone in Chicago who builds heavy duty trailers from all recycled materials (except the nuts and bolts) and is willing to keep the costs reasonable since he likes what it's being used for.

An example of this being a successful operation can be found at http://pedalpeople.com/index.php?page=2.

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Comment by Kevin Driscoll on April 29, 2010 at 1:35pm: That's great that you found a contact in Chicago. How much of a micro loan needs to be raised? Not sure of the logistics in transporting the trailer/materials either, so you might want to also consider Dream-bikes.org to see if they can help since they are local (near North Ave and MLK).
My initial thought for a trailer is use plywood and 2x4's along with re-used bike wheels and a bike mount, but it looks like the metal frames shown on pedalpeople.com would be pretty sturdy too.
At this point, I use a manufactured plastic tub bike trailer with aluminum frame, plastic rims, and standard rubber wheels, that was given to me by a co-worker before he left to Afghanistan.
I use it to collect and haul 3@ 5 gallon buckets of coffee-grounds-only for the Urban Ecology Center at Washington Park. That is enough weight weight for my comfort level, as it takes a quite a bit of pedal power to overcome the inertia when stopped at a standstill.
My goal is that once the compost process has matured and more volunteers are involved, then maybe we can look into a more commercial/industrial scale, where we'd taking additional organic material and expired produce from groceries, and a fee for service would be ideal.
One other thing: I'd be cautious with restaurants so to avoid mixing any dairy and animal products into the compost, as to avoid suprises from critters.