Cardboard Scrapper 2016

I have read some posts about cardboard recycling but nothing posted recently. I wanted to share my recent experience collecting metal and cardboard and hope to learn from others on the forum. I collect full-time in the Philly area and focus mostly on businesses. I have regular customers that I visit weekly and some call me when they have bundles of metal or cardboard available. Mostly retailers, schools, a homebuilder and a hospital. I also cruise some neighborhoods in the evening to collect bulk items and metal. My experience has been mostly positive. For businesses I show up in a clean box van and try to be as helpful and pleasant as possible. My truck can hold about 5 tons per trip and I have a yard closeby that I drop off cargo for further separating. I do my business runs in the early morning or late evening. During the day I work in my yard on baling to avoid traffic. Metal I take to a local scrap yard about once a week. I've been going to them for about a year now so I know they won't rip me off. But make sure you separate the valuable metal from the tin scrap. And the cardboard (OCC) I bale and store until I have a trailer load. About two trailers a week because OCC piles up fast and it's everywhere. I sell the cardboard to a broker that ships to Asia from the port. I get about $70 per ton for the bales which weigh about a half a ton each. I'm a one man operation and may add a helper this year to work on baling OCC. Here's the part you've been waiting for: I made $100k last year and cleared about $50k after expenses. I'm expecting even more this year if prices improve. The trick is to just keep pushing volume and sell. Don't hoard and wait for prices to rise.



I'm sharing this because I want others to know that there is money in scrapping even at today's prices. I'm not worried about competition because I only operate in one market and I already compete with larger recyclers here. The key is to be friendly with your customers. I get all my material for free. My competitors may pay a few bucks per ton but most people don't want to deal with them. I hope this encourages others to start in other parts of the country and this helps them earn a little extra cash. I will try to post with updates if enough people find this useful and want to hear more. Thanks and good luck everyone.

I've always wondered about dealing with cardboard. There is a location here that buys at $60/ton loose. There is a lot of cardboard everywhere, and I've even been approached several times to pick it up. However, having no bailer means I'm stuck with a trailer full of loose cardboard until I can go drop it off...and I'm not sure if what my trailer can hold would be worth it (6x12x7) Perhaps if I had another trailer, but there's no where to keep it.

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the reply. I have read the previous posts on cardboard and they don't reflect what I see in the market. Everyone was pretty sour on cardboard in 2012 and 2013. But now that scrap tin is under $100/ton its difficult to make money in metal but cardboard is still pretty good. I have branched out into a few other materials. I collect Ewaste (which I usually break down into various components if I have time), plastic wrap and mixed paper. I pickup some pallets when my customers leave it for me but I really don't like to because it takes up too much room in my truck and I get at best $1 per pallet. But you have to keep them happy especially when they feel like they are doing me a favor. I avoid PP, plastic bottles and containers because its usually very dirty and I don't want that in my storage area attracting rats.

As for the broker collecting from me. They drop off a trailer with a container twice a week. I fill it up same-day and they bring it to the port either same-day or next day. I don't pay for the trucking. I just load it, packed to the gills. Another key with my broker is they want consistency. They want two trailers from me every week, rain or shine. And they want clean cardboard. Some companies try to hustle them and pack dirty OCC inside the bales or wet materials to get more weight. The brokers know all the tricks. They just reject those loads and that stuff is usually dumped at a landfill. I think I'm the preferred supplier for my broker. I don't do the most volume. But they buy from me first and if they need more they buy from the waste companies and others. When times are bad and they cut back on buying, they still buy from me but cut off the other guys. It's pretty simple, be honest with the people you deal with and build a long term relationship. It's worth it.

Ryanw,

I don't know what to tell you but it seems pretty simple to me. If you want to find out if it's worth it to collect cardboard, go collect a load and sell it to your buyer. $60 per ton loose is a very good price. Surprisingly high, even though you are in CA where prices are higher. I would guess you get 1-2 tons in your trailer if you flatten them out. That's about $100 per haul to your buyer. Do that for a few months and you can save up for a used baler at about $8,000 and he might pay an extra $20 or $30 per ton for baled OCC. You just need to do the work. There's no short-cuts. I wish you luck.

Quick question for you Regis. Does your buyer accept any cardboard that's clean/dry? I'm mainly asking if they take shiny cardboard boxes and whatnot, or just basic brown cardboard. Something I'm considering in the future. Thanks.

Prior to this year cardboard was not a scrap I was into, that all changed with a new account this year. We have been selling 1 ton per week (average about 1,000 pounds per load twice a week). This is just "cherry picking" and we are only processing a small percentage of the waste stream! I'm thinking about using a 40 yard roll off and eventually going with a baler. Any pros or cons on that method?

Dude80,

I believe you are talking about waxboard boxes that hold fruits and veggies. I get that from some grocers and need to remove it before baling. Sometimes a few get bunched in the bales. I haven't heard any complaints from my broker but they generally don't want it. Most buyers don't want waxboard. I think the only people who take it are companies that mold it into fire logs and I doubt they pay for it. I also get boxboard (material used in cereal and shoe boxes) at some pickups. That stuff gets mixed with newspapers and junkmail in my mixed paper (MP) bales. I don't get much for MP, somewhere in the $40s per ton and I only do a small trailer every few weeks. I just went on a residential recycling run this morning to top off my trailer for a load of mixed paper. Also picked up a dishwasher from a restaurant. Lucky I got that into my truck without hurting myself.

Burtchino,

I don't know enough about your situation to advise you. But in general, roll-off containers aren't used for collecting cardboard. A loaded 40yd may hold about 3 tons loose. Take into account the container drop-off and collection and its tough to make a buck there. Roll-off compactors are used by some waste companies for collecting OCC but that costs money and it may sit there for weeks before getting filled. If your customer dumps other recyclable materials in the container it can get messy and time consuming to sort especially when wet. It really depends on what you can get for the materials and what your time is worth. A baler is always worth it because you get much more than selling loose OCC plus there are more buyers you can sell to. Sorry I couldn't provide you more insight. Good luck.

We are using 40 yard roll offs for waste hauling now, but your right the cost is too much, and I need to go a baler for the cardboard scrap (baled OCC adds about $10 a ton over selling loose OCC). I have been told that there is no market for the wax cardboard (produce boxes)

bigburtchino are businesses in Cali required to recycle cardboard? And are prices higher there like they are on CRV items?

There is no deposit on cardboard which is what drives the high CRV redemption prices. Cardboard gets shipped to asia and we're on the pacific coast so cheaper transportation means higher prices for cardboard. Whether or not businesses are required to recycle is up to individual municipalities. Here, if you have a certain sized dumpster, you are required to have a recycling dumpster as well.

Hobo - As of June 29, 2012 with the passing of AB341 and Senate Bill 1018, any California business that generates 4 cubic yards or more of commercial solid waste per week, to have a recycling program that diverts increasing percentage of waste into recycling and away from land fills. With a state wide goal of 75% of commercial waste to be recycled by 2020.

A business has four options:
1. Self-haul
2. Subscribe to a hauler
3. Arrange for a pickup of recyclable materials
4. Subscribe to a recycling serevice

The law requires each local municipality to establish a landfill diversion program for all commercial solid waste. So each local area implements how and what needs to be recycled. This makes this law very hard to enforce and with very little consistency in what needs to be recycled, two neighboring cities can have completely different programs. New laws are going to be passed that will start standardizing the requirements very soon!

For me it is simple, recycle the waste when possible as it is very expensive to haul it all to a landfill and those cost just keep getting more expensive. For example one of my newest accounts was paying a trash company to remove 80 to 200 cubic yards of trash a week. With 50 to 80% of that being cardboard, CRV, E-waste, and mixed metals. So did we need a law? No, sure does provide opportunities to save/make money if you know how and who to sell a little bit of scrap material to (just need get into the trash in a big way).

Cardboard and paper makes up more than 50% of all commercial waste, so to get the other better paying scrap one needs to handle it all!

Regis- Do you have containers that you provide for your clients? Or do you just pickup when they have X amount? I know of several companies in my area that do OCC recycling but they have the funds to provide dumpster to each one. Obviously I wouldn't be able to do this so, I'm trying to figure out how to go about approaching potential clients that don't have a company they use but would benefit from one. Any additional insight would be appreciated. Thanks

I just saw we made the topic of the day on scrapmetalforum. That's great and I hope we can keep up the conversation.

I do not provide any containers to companies I collect from. Some companies just have loose piles that I pickup from when I am in their neighborhood. Others call me when they have too much OCC piling up and I make a special trip or they just throw out with the trash. Some have a recycling dumpster provided by their waste hauler and tell me to help myself. Some larger places like the hospital or grocery stores bale the OCC and I pickup once a week. You might ask why are they not selling the cardboard instead of giving to me for free? Well, their waste companies used to collect their recyclables and provided them with a credit. But with commodity prices down, it became less profitable and the waste companies got greedy and wanted to start charging for the extra collection route. Waste Management is especially guilty of this. That's how I got the bulk of my OCC in the past year and a half. Some paper recyclers pay for bales from grocers but they don't pay much and often deduct for contaminants. Many companies wait 2-3 months to receive a check for $50. Not worth the hassle to chase down for most businesses.

I'll share more of my tips experiences in future posts. Stay tuned.

I was searching for buyers in my area and didn't come up with much.

I did find this though for any that are interested. If you have a better list of buyers, please share.

Baled Waste Paper Exchange Listings

How many just cardboard customers do you service monthly? At what rate do you pick up new customers? Just trying to get an idea on how many customers supply you with cardboard to get you to your monthly tonnage.

good hustle by you st regis...i live in philly and most mid size food stores have balers for cardboard....dollar tree..wawa(our version of 7-11)...they are not big bales.i always wondered who picked them up because they are not loose in a recycle dumpster mixed with other recyclables...im in northeast part of city and there is cardboard galore literally....find a chain of stores that bales their cardboard and your on your way