Many businesses lose a fortune each year by not adequately recycling their scrap plastic. When commercial plastic waste goes to landfill, dangerous toxins can leach out into the environment, causing harm to plants, animals and humans. This is bad for everyone concerned, but poor plastic recycling also has an economic impact. Plastic polymers are precious resources that in many cases are expensive to refine and produce, being dependent on specialist processes and raw materials. By recycling these plastics, they can be returned to the market as reusable commodities. This lowers the overall market cost of plastic products, and also gives businesses that recycle plastics access to a valuable source of additional revenue.

Make Money From Waste Management

With many types of plastic in high demand, there is the potential for your waste management strategy to actually earn you money, rather than be a drain on resources. Unfortunately, the problem many businesses face is the paucity of information available on scrap plastic prices and where to get the best deals. Market prices vary widely, some falling significantly below the retail value for commonly used plastic materials. Some recycling companies may not offer transparent prices on their rebates, while others offer rebates per tonne that fall short of their actual value. The result is that a lot of businesses fall short on claiming the full value of their plastic scrap, while some even lose money by paying a business to take scrap plastic off their hands.

With this being said, here is a guide to getting the best value from your plastic recycling:

Understand The True Value Of Your Plastic Scrap

Start by getting a realistic benchmark for how much your scrap plastic is worth. An independent resource can be found at letsrecycle.com – an advisory service set up to help businesses and local authorities effectively manage waste management strategies. A realistic price outline for commonly used plastics can also be found in our free e-book: The Plastic Recycling Rebate Guide. You can access a copy by clicking here.

Whatever you do, when approaching a commercial recycling company, make sure they are transparent with you about the prices they offer, and don’t be afraid to shop around for the best rates for the polymers you need to recycle. Measure these prices up against current benchmarks and choose the most reliable service.

How To Get Better Prices For Your Scrap

The prices offered by recycling companies are based on the amount of processing needed. The less processing required to reduce a plastic to a commercial commodity, the higher price they can afford to give you. Adopting certain recycling best practices will therefore help ensure you get the best prices per tonne. For instance:

• Clearly separate your polymers into different containers before recycling. Higher payments are always available for pure, higher quality materials. Mixed or contaminated batches will yield a lower grade recycled plastic and bring a lower price.

• Containerise your plastic scrap into industry standard milling bales before collection. This can reduce transportation costs and yield a better price per tonne. Pre-compacted plastic will also get a better price, as more can be transported in the same vehicles.

• If possible, keep different coloured plastics in separate containers. Neutral coloured plastics are more valuable and always yield a better price. Make sure that black plastics are stored separately, as these are the least valuable materials. A batch that is contaminated by black plastic will lower the overall grade of the consignment.

• Take care to avoid accidental contamination with non-recyclable materials. If in doubt, check with your plastic recycling company.

• Try to keep your plastic scrap as clean as possible, as soiled material will need industrial cleaning before it can be recycled – an expense which may lower the value of your batch.

Make An Informed Choice With Recycled UK

At Recycled UK we offer a range of flexible recycling options at the best possible prices. Our service starts with a site audit and bespoke evaluation, where we will provide advice on the waste management processes that can secure the best prices. We will then tailor a service that fits around your business model, allowing you to establish how much sorting, segregation etc. you wish to do on site, and how much you need us to take on at our recycling plant.

To find out more about plastic recycling, please download our Plastic Recycling Rebate Guide, a free e-book that explains all you need to know about plastic scrap recycling. For all other enquiries, please don’t hesitate to give our technical sales team a call.