the FUTURE OF SCRAPPING or - Page 2

Originally Posted by Otto

I'm not an expert on the forest industry, but It's my understanding that there has been a dramatic shift away from pulp over the past several years. Wood pellets, primarily for power generation, is growing steadily. This, and problems with supply due to Mountain Pine Beetle and other pests, means there will be an increasing scarcity of wood fiber (especially when home construction ramps up again). I did some reading on wood recycling over the winter and it appears that there are companies involved in this. I have no idea what used wood fiber is going for, but money follows scarcity. If someone has access to significant volumes of waste wood, there may be an opportunity here.

Wood and wood pulp are different in that their markets are different, and the way they are recycled are different.

For example, wood eaten by Beatles can still be used to pulp, but cannot be used for construction.

So you are correct in that wood used for construction has become very expensive indeed. And this has caused some pressure on the wood pulping industry in the type that manufactures paper products. But so far as cardboard is concerned, it keeps going down because there is more and more of it. Just imagine how much cardboard enters the US every year from China, as more and more of our goods are Chinese made, more and more of the cardboard is as well.

The other side of the story is that there is a big controversy currently over the trees that Monsanto is creating that will not produce offspring, and have less lignin so that it's easier to produce pulp from them.

Monsanto and ArborGen set their sights on GM trees and grasses

Which I might add seems totally insane to me considering that Hemp fibers do it far better, and I'm not so keen on the idea of introducing GMO trees that have a drop dead gene built in, sounds dangerous to me.

Scott

New growth in agriculture as a whole. Not necessarily hemp production. But a hemp byproduct.

I heard shrink wrap pays well, but its hard to get it in the tons.

even though I'm being somewhat a umm what do you call it...a smart***. this is much better post than your last one.and Scott I really enjoy reading your work. you appear to be a extremely smart human being or some kind of intelligent life form....or you have a very large data base for a brain

Originally Posted by griff5693

even though I'm being somewhat a umm what do you call it...a smart***. this is much better post than your last one.and Scott I really enjoy reading your work. you appear to be a extremely smart human being or some kind of intelligent life form....or you have a very large data base for a brain

Well thank you for the compliment, I truly appreciate it. I have learned to deal with my dyslexia by reading voraciously, and have retained some of that information along the way. But I'm really a very simple person, if I sound as you describe it's really because I choose to surround myself with people like I find on this forum. After all you are the sum of the people you keep around you. I have met a lot of people on this forum, and interacted with more, that are equally if not more intelligent. Specially some of the more down to earth people that choose to express themselves with fewer words. I tend to write an entire wall of text because I'm afraid I'm not explaining myself in the way I want to be understood. It always amazes me when I see someone who can express in a few words what it takes me paragraphs to do.

Anyway, thank you so much!

Scott

as far as the future of e-waste around me the state of vermont is advertising free e-waste drop off at 90 locations due to the recent laws of no e-waste allowed in landfills. Being across the river in NH we also have the same e-waste laws but no free drop offs as of yet this has brought a huge surplus of e-waste to me for right now. I'm seeing vermont is laying the ground work and if they start making profits i'm sure a lot of states will be following in their footsteps. so what will happen will i have to start paying for e-waste because they can drop it of free... not likely!
It seems to me if you are in the e-waste side of this buisiness you better be prepared to deal with less volume or and it's a big or get into the game big now perhaps dealing with state gov and epa to run own these drop off locations basically becoming huge overnight.
One thing is for sure states are starting to find ways to deal with the e-waste whether your their or not.

Good Point,
Ewaste has seen a boost. And we recently started the same new laws here. I have been asked by clients if I could accept the ewaste items they will be collecting.

Originally Posted by TJMETALRECYCLERS

With E-waste prices plunging downward on boards and such, I am beginning to think twice of going forward with my E-Waste market.
Also, some of my clients have gone to alternative ways to getting rid of their old stuff and now I find my supplies being cut back badly.
Do I start paying for the stuff that for the last 2 years I have been getting free. I have provided professional service to these clients and yet, it appears that "money rules" and if some one comes in and offers them something, they go with that, not even talking to me about it, as to whether I could work with them.
I am just at a lost as what to do now.

I refine, but even still e-waste is so prolific that I sometimes purchase lots of e-waste, when I can at prices I know I can make a decent profit, and then truck them over to a refinery that I know that deals with that specific type of e-waste, represent my material and get paid out on full accountability of the metal content.

Just because you can't get it for free, doesn't mean you cannot make a very tidy profit on purchasing and ??? If you are buying to sell to a scrap yard it might be more difficult, but ask yourself this, what does the scrap yard do it with after they purchase it? Most of the time they are either selling to an even larger scrap yard, or a refinery. Now imagine you create a business where you are buying at prices equal or less than the scrap yard, and then having it processed yourself. You will make the money you normally would by selling to a scrap yard, plus what the scrap yard makes selling or having it processed by the refinery.

And let me tell you why this will work, and continue to work, forever. It would be less expensive for people if they composted all their paper products they were able to compost, separate out all the recycled goods they could get paid out on, and then save up their garbage to truck to the dumps themselves every month or so, rather than paying the garbage company to pick up their garbage. But they don't. For whatever reason, and there are many, from just being plain lazy to not wanting to visit the dumps because of fear of disease and everything else in between, people don't or won't take their garbage to the dumps themselves.

It's even more true for things like e-scrap

There is one company in my area that is now paying for peoples e-scrap. They offer a specific amount right on the spot, people are throwing their e-waste at them. I think it's probably going to be the next evolution in e-scrap.

There are people in the world right now attempting to bridge the gap all the way from collecting, to scrapping through recovering and refining to production and retail sale of goods made from recycled materials. I would like to think I have accomplished most of this. I like the idea of supporting the people who are collecting and breaking down the collected material though so I am working out a method of including this in my business model, for example purchasing e-waste and having it delivered to a scrap yard that will break it down and return to me the material I need for processing. Everyone makes money in this case. But that's my intent, to create a stream from collecting scrap to producing a product I can sell.

Scott

Originally Posted by hobo finds

As more and more things are being made with less and cheaper materials things will not last as long, only problem is that they are worth less than the older better made products. I think mandatory recycling / harvesting of old products will be what happens. You buy a pair of shoes pay a deposit unless you return a pair of shoes when you get the new ones. The costs of these programs will be passed on to the consumer as it will be mandatory of business to recycle the waste.

I like the "shoe core"