Silo Contamination: Polymers Get Recovered

Silo Contamination: Polymers Get Recovered

Problem / Opportunity:

50,000 lbs. of natural ABS virgin pellets had been contaminated with PVC pellets (square) and
a trace amount of yellow concentrate and black resin – a result of silo cross-contamination.
The material required immediate removal from the silo in order for the customer to get a
replacement load of ABS pellets and maintain production.

Impact on Customer:

The customer was prepared to export the contaminated material “as is” for about 18% the cost
of replacement material, resulting in a loss of 82%. To export (or sell) the material, containers
were required and would need to be purchased to pack out the contaminated material (an
additional $0.02/lb. loss).

Based upon these options, the customer would incur a significant loss compared to the original
sale price.

Butler-MacDonald’s Solution:

Butler-MacDonald sampled, quoted and received the bulk truck. Immediately upon arrival,
Butler-MacDonald removed the yellow concentrate (and other contaminants) and went on to
recover both clean ABS and clean PVC pellets as separate polymers using our various separation
techniques.

Result:

The customer was able to maintain production by immediately draining the silo into a bulk
truck and scheduling a replacement shipment of virgin ABS pellets. Butler-MacDonald recovered
value for unusable plastic resulting in a 98% combined yield of 100% pure natural ABS &
PVC pellets at a cost that was economically viable for our customer.

Export turned out to be no solution at all.

You won’t believe everything we can do. Until you call us.

Silo Contamination: Polymers Get Recovered
Clean PVC Recovered
Silo Contamination: Polymers Get Recovered
Clean ABS Recovered