about plastics

i was wondering about plastic waste from recycle. is there a place that buys it and gives you money? i was also wondering about dishwasher plastic considering most of it is plastic except for some wires and some other things. how do u guys get rid of dishwasher tubs? tried whacking it with a hammer lol yeah right bounced right off. i hate how durable plastic is and cast aluminum to.

You are going to have a very hard time trying to sell plastic.

No one in my state takes unmarked stuff, and most only accept the basics ( water bottles and milk jugs ) !

I do not remove plastic from computers or printers. I remove the circuit boards and sell the rest as shred. I took about 600 pounds of printers to the yard yesterday.

Originally Posted by jimicrk

I do not remove plastic from computers or printers. I remove the circuit boards and sell the rest as shred. I took about 600 pounds of printers to the yard yesterday.

Got some spare time? You can come do my 13 pallets of them.

The ratio of steel in most cheap printers is so low that they are probably a loss for the yard. Open up a few and it becomes obvious. I will do some of the older or higher end units where they are obviously high in metal, but those are usually business class, old old lasers, and metal bottomed inkjets. Environmentally, printers are a tremendous nightmare. I save the cartridges and sell the ones on the list to Planet Green. Done several transactions, just be aware they test them and only about 2/3 end up good.

Originally Posted by ozarksewaste

The ratio of steel in most cheap printers is so low that they are probably a loss for the yard. Open up a few and it becomes obvious. I will do some of the older or higher end units where they are obviously high in metal, but those are usually business class, old old lasers, and metal bottomed inkjets. Environmentally, printers are a tremendous nightmare. I save the cartridges and sell the ones on the list to Planet Green. Done several transactions, just be aware they test them and only about 2/3 end up good.

For large copiers and office printers there is a lot more steel. Plus a modest amount of copper wiring that few yards will recover but downstream where shred bales are shredded it adds up.

Originally Posted by mike1

i was wondering about plastic waste from recycle. is there a place that buys it and gives you money?

Mostly no. In many cases it's very difficult to give it away. You need specialty industrial equipment to get it in a condition to sell.

I only take in large loads. I'd fill a dishwasher with smalls and throw it on the load. Pop the motor off with forks on the skid steer

Originally Posted by JJinLV

You need specialty industrial equipment to get it in a condition to sell.

Just a side note: 'recovered' clean and peletized plastic sells for about $0.60 /lb +- according to Google.
You can not mix plastic types, and often times, can not mix colors. Also, fiber-reinforced plastic is not recyclable at all.

What about the tape on printer cartridges, aren't they gold plated buttons?

Originally Posted by RLS0812

Just a side note: 'recovered' clean and peletized plastic sells for about $0.60 /lb +- according to Google.
You can not mix plastic types, and often times, can not mix colors. Also, fiber-reinforced plastic is not recyclable at all.

so what kind of plastic is a dishwasher tub made of?

Originally Posted by CFoote

I would make an educated guess that the tub is probably made of High Density Poly-Ethylene (HDPE). It is very strong, and can handle strong chemicals( acids and bases) without breaking down, or leaching plastic byproducts (phthalates) into the water, or on objects that are washed in it. When I worked in a chemistry Lab that analyzed soils and waters for plastic/organic toxic compounds, all of the glassware that was used for extraction was soaked in strong detergent in HDPE tubs because the HDPE would not leach out the same contaminants that we were using the glassware to try and collect.

wow thats cool. what a background some people on here have just amazing! what is a chemist doing scrapping ? dont they make a crap ton of money?

When the grant money dried up, the PI's (permanent investigators...I think.

PI in the research world stands for "principal investigator"

With your dishwasher tub, do this:

Sometimes i cut them in 4 pieces with my sawzall and put them in the garbage tote.

Or put the cut up pieces in the trash recycling (if you are required to do so) and see if they take it as HDPE (which I think is #2 plastic)

There was a guy or two on here in the past that sold ABS plastic (such as most older printers and computers) had for an outer shell but it was only in certain larger metros and you needed a lot of it (they were getting about a penny a pound for it). At the time, it was about the same as clean corrugate cardboard. ABS plastic is a thermo-set plastic so it can't be re-melted and made into something else, such as a thermo-form plastic (think #1 & #2 plastics). The post-consumer market for ABS was in a ground up form, although I don't remember what the end uses of the "pellets" were...