Floor Sweeps & Waste: A Usable Plastic Resource

Problem / Opportunity:

A customer had an opportunity to purchase 40,000 lbs. of natural HIPS pellets contaminated with rocks and dirt from a ground spill at a very low price “as is.” This material also contained wire, metal, wood and several other commingled polymers that made it unusable. The customer had no idea whether or not such severely contaminated material could be salvaged and had no ability to perform the required analysis. So for the customer to benefit from the opportunity, they needed to determine if cleaning the material to an acceptable purity level was technically feasible.

Impact on Customer:

With HIPS regrind selling for half the cost of prime pellet, if the customer could purchase the  Contaminated HIPS material “as is” for as little as 12% the cost of prime, this would be huge savings. Time was of the essence to obtain the material and seize this opportunity. So they contacted Butler MacDonald for analysis so they would know the cost and estimated yield prior to bidding.

Butler-MacDonald’s Solution:

Upon receipt of the sample, an immediate analysis was performed. Butler-MacDonald guaranteed the customer that a clean, highly valued HIPS pellet material could be recovered for the customer at a price that permitted the customer to profitably bid and obtain the otherwise dirty HIPS pellets.

Benefit:

The customer shipped the material to Butler-MacDonald for recovery and received a 93% yield of 100% pure HIPS pellets. The total net cost (including acquisition, freight and processing) to the customer was only a fraction of current market value. In a very competitive market for clean HIPS regrind, Butler-MacDonald’s capabilities enabled the customer to realize acquisition of HIPS pellets for less than 60% of market value.

Rely upon Butler-MacDonald to aid in your plastic procurement efforts. Call us.