# Plastics



## rusty (Jan 6, 2011)

Many years ago I was being paid $0.10 lb to burn the insulation from copper wire but thought this was messy, so I then did some experimenting using methyl ethyl ketone as a solvent to remove the plastic from telephone wire.

Anyhow my previous involvement with plastics is another story, so well get back on track. I sill think there's plenty of money to be had in recycled plastics, it certainly would appear that we as consumers are using more these days and this makes it profitable to recycle. 

I received a reply from two Canadian companies this afternoon requesting 5 lb samples of the material I'm offering.

Here is a google search using key words to locate companies that deal in scrap plastics. Hope this helps some of you to find a buyer.
http://tinyurl.com/2c5nqbg

A short youtube video that I found showing shredders at work regrinding plastic.


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbXL54C0FZo[/youtube]


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## Claudie (Jan 6, 2011)

> I then did some experimenting using methyl ethyl ketone as a solvent to remove the plastic from telephone wire.



How would something like this work with several pounds of ribbon connector ends that have the gold plated pins in them? It would be great to just dump buckets full of these in a solution and filter the clean pins out. :shock: I'm not sure if it would be cost effective but it would sure save some time....


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## rusty (Jan 6, 2011)

MEK might work to dissolve the plastic where you could screen out the pins then return the MEK for distilling to reclaim the solvent leaving a lump of resin and pigment used to colour the plastic behind.

Excuse the spelling, I installed a newer version of Ubuntu with the Canadian dictionary for my spell checker.


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## joem (Jan 6, 2011)

Ontario recyclers. Includes plastics and others
http://www.ontarioscrap.com/


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## rusty (Jan 6, 2011)

joem said:


> Ontario recyclers. Includes plastics and others
> http://www.ontarioscrap.com/




Thanks joem that is a good list with plenty of contacts.


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## rusty (Jan 6, 2011)

I've been asked a question privately that I think deserves to be answered openly on GRF.

The coating on telephone wire is tin, I tumbled small batches in a closed vessel. The pvc plastic dissolved within minutes turning into a grey sludge.

The Ford Motor Co. and Quaker Oats were doing research in reclaiming plastics back in the 1970's and had a pilot plant set up using MEK.

From the first closed vessel, a large tumbler filled with virgin MEK and nitrogen the plastic was tumbled then the MEK was bleed off into storage tank.

In my case the wire would have been removed at this point, the drum reloaded, with the pregnant MEK re introduced, it could be used 3 times before it became to saturated.

There would have been 3 storage tanks, virgin MEK, in the first, then once used MEK into tank 2, on a new batch of plastic tank would have been reused then pumped into tank 3 where it would have been either sold as PVC pipe solvent or distilled leaving the resin behind for further processing.

Before tumbling nitrogen is introduced into the drum giving an inert atmosphere, tumbling is done in a hermetically sealed chamber.

Just a kid then with no real money and tunnel vision, the guy I was burning the copper for tied my hands when I showed him the procedure.

Solvent extraction of the plastic gave us 100% returns on the wire versus burning.


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