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With increased awareness about environmentally-useful recovery processes, not much thought is given to post-industrial plastic recycling.

Most are familiar with post-consumer plastics like bottles, packaging and other household items that are placed in bins to be picked up, with varying degrees of efficiency, by municipal trash collection. Less familiar, but still a useful way of eliminating waste, is material that comes directly from a factory.

Post-industrial plastic scrap comes in all colors, shapes and sizes and are most often in the form of film, purgings, chunks and fibers. Indeed, any kind of plastic that is used in the manufacturing process is considered post-industrial. Scrap from items like wire covering, seat belts, car bumpers and other automobile parts are typical examples.

The source is usually defective or broken pieces that result from the mechanized creation process. Other machines melt this waste down from various sizes into more manageable pieces.

In most factories, the pieces are loaded onto a conveyor belt where they are transported to shredding or grinder machines to slice and dice for reuse. Another conveyor belt facilitates further size reduction and turns this post-industrial plastic into pellets. 

The sources of post-industrial plastic come from a variety of resins. Polystyrene (PS) Low-density Polyethylene (LDPE), Polypropylene (PP), Nylons, Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) are just a few of the plastic polymers that can be recycled and reused.

Plastic regrind and repro (reprocessed pellets) are now added to the manufacturing recipe to be used in part, or in its entirety to begin the fabrication process anew. Using recycled resin in this manner saves money and dramatically cuts the need for landfills.

Polychem (USA) matches post-industrial plastic scrap producers with manufacturers who are experts at adding this excess to their own production processes.

If you produce truckload quantities of post-industrial plastic scrap, give us a call and we will quote you a price and facilitate the removal of the material from your plant.

More information at The Association Of Plastic Recyclers.