# My plastic recycling is going nowhere!!!!!!!!



## hyderconsulting (Mar 1, 2009)

I have been working on the problem of finding any potential buyers for the computer plastic I've been generating from my computer recycling operation and getting nowhere. I came within inches of closing a couple of deals last fall and getting two recycling companies in my region to come in and pick up my plastic and pay me a little for it. Then the economy self destructed and all deals were off as a result. I've been advertising on recycle.net but no takers so far. I know the main problem is that my quantity I have to offer (half a ton per month) is not enough to perk anyone's interest. I don't really have the storage space to store up 40,000 lbs to eventually fill a shipping container. I need to move out what I have building up. As you can see from my photos I went to a lot of trouble to get it properly sorted and packaged for shipment. I'm curious if anyone else is in my predicament and might have some suggestions. I've had no luck with the local scrapyards handling this stuff. Regards, Chris Hyder.


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## patnor1011 (Mar 1, 2009)

the only thing what I might suggest is that what my friend is doing long time....
He is grinding all hard plastic stuff into pellets say from 1x1 to 3x3 mm. He is selling then all this to builders as compound for making plasto-concrete as this is superb material for heat insulation and save you money in sand or small stones. Plasto-concrete as he calls it is practically cement with grinded plastic and plastificator what is liquid simmilar to washing up liquid to get rid of any static elect which might be in plastic. I saw few of floors made from it, also bricks and I am telling you that they are same hard as normal concrete ones but much lighter and if you have loads of plastic for free - they are cheaper then regular ones as you are saving on stones or sand. Some people are covering pipes of floor heating with this grinded plastic an then putting layer of concrete on top... You can get rid of all plastic like that in building industry and you can get more money than you will get from any recycling company. Hope this will help. There is few photos but poor quality as I did them in a hurry by my phone but it will help you to see what I am talking about. It is amazing ti see that they look like some stone bricks and they are plastic instead... And if you will mix different colours of plastic they can be nice to look at them... :wink:


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## hyderconsulting (Mar 1, 2009)

I appreciate the tip and I'm going to check this out. Regards, Chris Hyder.


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## patnor1011 (Mar 2, 2009)

Trick is that you have to convience them that you are selling them heat insulation which that grinded really plastic is... Loads of people building houses themselvs or small contractors turned up to get more and more and sometimes he was not able to satisfy all of them becouse of demand... Now some bigger company started making that bricks so he is selling most of his stuff there as they are taking bigger amounts but as far as I know these builders came and take from 100 to 500kg of it in one go like. He was storing that in that big square sacks... When you are selling plastic to recycling company they will pay more if it is separated by type and even colour but if you have some smaller scale recycling company with not much space grinding is better option. I must find some of his leaflets with details about that use of plastic for insulation translate that to english and then Ill pm that to you... Good luck


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## patnor1011 (Mar 2, 2009)

BTW that washing up liquid like is some industrial one it is like domestic but without colours and smell... Then watter, cement and grinded plastic thats it - nothing strange or special. Very simple and effective and that is what we need. Sometimes people tend to complicate things and overlook simple methods. It is definitel worth to try. He was experimenting with recycling hard plastic with soft plastic like cable coating too. He mixed them and with added chemicals which softened that cable coating and make gluelike substance was able to make bricks from plastic only without cement. They were very consistent and when dropped on floor they didnt break just jumped back like ball. Something simmilar like children playgrounds floor coating dont know exact name but he abandoned taht idea as chemicals needed to mix with that plastic was bit expensive and his goal was to get rid or recycle his plastic with lowest cost possible... He has loads of that cable coating comming from his wire and cable recycling machine... Pat


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## patnor1011 (Mar 2, 2009)

I have short 15 minutes presentation-like video from his factory operations it is in slovak but it show what he is doing in his recycling factory and what kind of machinery he is using I can posted it somewhere if someone is interested...


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## hyderconsulting (Mar 2, 2009)

Well, I'm certainly interested in the video if you can find and post it. You are right in that the way to handle this computer plastic is to get it ground down to some workable size for use in building materials or whatever. I can't justify paying for extra storage space for what little this plastic is bringing on the market even at semi-trailer quantities. What really hurts you is the amount of handling time that has to take place in sorting, packaging and moving the material. It doesn't make it worthwhile at all in that respect. 
I did a google search for plastoconcrete and really didn't get any hits. I did one on plastic concrete and come up with quite a bit. Apparantly, there are patents on this in putting plastic filler in concrete and also the same in asphalt paving. I don't think though you would run into any serious problems if you started making your own "plastic bricks" for sale locally. I not sure I would want to make the bricks themselves but I may consider it yet. I need to do something one way or the other about this plastic eventually. 
I do know there is a plant in southern France that makes plastic boards out of any type of scrap plastic as lumber replacements but it involves a lot of heat and pressure. It is a sophisticated manufacturing process to say the least.
My next step would probably be to come up with a way to grind the plastic down to size. I have read some posts from some of the people on the forum that they use gas powered brush grinders. I would have to some more detailed information though before running out and buying a grinder.
Thank you for your help so far and I'll let you know what develops. Regards, Chris Hyder.


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## jamthe3 (Mar 2, 2009)

I too would love to see the video; can barely speak English anyway, so the language barrier is immaterial to me.

If you'd consider buying a grinder, perhaps you should consider looking for a used, inexpensive baler. There actually are various pvc recycle plants scattered about, believe there's one here in Texas, and perhaps you could cut a deal w/ an owner-operator headed the right way looking for a load. You'll find many make trips with whatever they can pick up after unloading somewhere.

Just a thought, probably don't need 20 tons for a complete truckload to get it moved if its baled properly. Remember, scrap steel's moving all over the country in search of a boat to China as low as .03/lb.

John


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## Pilgrim2850 (Mar 2, 2009)

What would you use to grind the plastic?


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## jamthe3 (Mar 2, 2009)

I think you'll find (if the question was directed my way) that w/ a baler you won't really have to worry about grinding it up any more. They're machines that basically compress the heck out of it and form it into briquettes (I guess would be the best, inaccurate description.)

Almost everything that's recycled ends up being baled at some point or another for ease of transportation (if by truck, at least) and later processing. Some even have a shrink wrapper like attachment.

John


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## Platdigger (Mar 2, 2009)

I have a couple of industrial plastic grinders, if anyone was interested.
Randy


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## jamthe3 (Mar 3, 2009)

Hyper,

Here's a link to a search result page for plastic recyclers in your state...maybe it'll help....maybe it'll just annoy....at least my hearts in the right place.

http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=utf-8&fr=slv8-ushdl&p=plastic%20recyclers%20in%20tennessee&type=

Cheers,
John

PS--I'd ask about the grinders Platdigger, but I doubt my heart could take the $$ tag...those are probably some pretty pricey machines, you're lucky to have 'em. I'm envious!


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## Platdigger (Mar 3, 2009)

Well/ I haven't even thought about what I would take. Probably a lot less than you would think.


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## jamthe3 (Mar 3, 2009)

If you'd like, you could PM me some info along w/ suggestions (dimensions, weight) on how to get it here to the other borderland. If nothing else, I bet I could steer you to where you could sell it w/o going to to much trouble.

John


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## patnor1011 (Mar 3, 2009)

hyderconsulting said:


> I do know there is a plant in southern France that makes plastic boards out of any type of scrap plastic as lumber replacements but it involves a lot of heat and pressure. It is a sophisticated manufacturing process to say the least.



Thats it. I know people doing same things but this is costly to get all machinery necessary. Plastic-concrete bricks are the cheapest method how to get rid of plastic and get paid for it...

My friend claims that he developed that method and holds some kind of industrial patent for it but as he said nobody can stop you making bricks from it as this is the same as when one bakery will try to stop others making round bread claiming that they invented it...

I have acala converter and just put that dvd to mp4 its much smaller 48MB and I am uploading it to rapidshare... I am changing that 700MB file to rar and will upload it to rapidshare too but little bit later...

here is link to mp4 file:
http://rapidshare.com/files/204790486/ekoraymp4.MP4


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## Irons (Mar 3, 2009)

A long time ago but the animal hasn't changed.

The problem with mixed plastics is that they can't be run through an injection moulding machine without the risk of severe damage to the machine and possibly the operators. No one is going to risk damaging a million dollar machine to save a few bucks.
We used to get most of ours from the Western Electric plant in Shreveport LA. They would sort it, grind it and pellitize it so that it was just like running virgin resin.
That was back in the days when the phone co. took apart returned phones and recycled everything.
The cost of labor to sort it is the big thing and unmarked parts are essentially trash.


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## patnor1011 (Mar 3, 2009)

Exactly as Irons said... My friend even bought plastic detector to help him sort out all kinds of unmarked plastic as he also was determined to recycle as much as possible but all that is worthless. It may sound good in some country where worker gets dollar or two for all day of hard work but it is not worth hassle here as cost of labour is enormous and eats your profit and much more...
Thats why he is grinding it and recycle that stuf in building industry... Instead of sorting simply threw everything into machine and bag it... Builders are happy too as plastic is waterproof, etc etc.... Your product is lighter then regular concrete with nearly same hardness...

BTW if somebody downloaded that mp4 file let me know if it is any good... If it is working. I am putting whole file in mpeg 700MB in books section divided to 8x100MB .rar files on my rapidshare account.

Also if somebody has something and want to share that with others I can put it in my rapidshare account too...
pat


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## cmclean (Mar 3, 2009)

Pat:

I downloaded the file without any problem. Thank you for posting it.

Carlos


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## Gold Trail (Mar 3, 2009)

I have an affiliate plant in Atlanta GA and another in TN that may be interested in your plastics. I am personaly interested, but my primary plant is in Southern PA with the plastic loose, the freight would be more than the plastics worth. Let me know if I can help


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## glorycloud (Mar 3, 2009)

Gold Trail - does your affiliate plant in Atlanta work with small operations with small volumes of plastics and other recycle-ables from computer equipment? I would be interested in speaking with someone as I am ramping up my operation in Georgia.


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## hyderconsulting (Mar 3, 2009)

First reply: Jamthe3, I appreciate the yahoo info on recyclers in Tennessee for there are a couple listed that could be potential buyers.

Second reply: Gold Trail, I'll go ahead and tell how I've sorted out and packed the plastic for it may help you and any others reading this forum thread. Most of my plastic is computer plastic from towers, printers, monitors, keyboards and so on. There is some from toys and appliances. It has been sorted out by type of plastic and whether or not it is clear or colored. All plastic having any dirt, metal attached or metal studs embedded, any foam or heavy glue has been removed. It has been sorted into types like ABS, ABS-FR, PP, PS (by the recycling symbols) and so on. The miscellaneous plastic will contain plastic blends like ABS/PC and any plastic with no recycling symbols so common plastic like ABS and others will be in this group. There are very small plastics pieces mixed in with very large pieces in the boxes. The plastic has been packed in gaylords on pallets with each box weighing 300 to 500 lbs each with the tops shrinkwrapped for shipment. If anyone is interested contact me by email or call. (423)715-4828.


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## jamthe3 (Mar 3, 2009)

Hyper,

I'm pretty sure Gold Trail's TN plant was on that page.

John


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## Gold Trail (Mar 5, 2009)

sorry i didnt respond sooner. I have been stiring the AP buck the last few days.

I am not sure if its permited for me to post business info here, so any one interested in the plastics facility in GA send me a PM and we'll take it from there. and yes, we do deal in all forms on computer scrap Ryan


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## Pilgrim2850 (Mar 5, 2009)

Gold Trail.......where in Pa are you located?


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## Gold Trail (Mar 6, 2009)

Our PA facility i in Mount holly Springs, about 1/2 hour south of Harrisburg, PA

We do specialize in small bussiness transactions, to answer the PM i recived. 

I will be happy to help out any one i can with plastics and computer parts recycling. 

Ryan


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## pinman (Mar 6, 2009)

platdigger, is there a chance you could post a picture of the grinders? are they both in working order?


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## Platdigger (Mar 6, 2009)

You know, as awfull as this may sound.......I think I sold the 15 horse motor for scrap. Seems like with another motor it would be fine.
The belts and pulleys are still there.

The 10 horse should run, but I would want to hook it up to be sure.

The 15 is a Foremost and has 2 knives and a blower. The 10 has 3 knives, if that helps.

Give me a few days on some pics if you are still interested.
Randy


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## pinman (Mar 6, 2009)

if it isnt too much trouble please.
thanks


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