Are you throwing away money?
Are you throwing away your used conveyor belting in the dumpster? If so, you are potentially filling our landfills with non-biodegradable plastic or losing out on reclaiming the costs of your stainless.
In many cases you are also paying to have it hauled away!
I have visited many of your manufacturing facilities during my travels and seen many of your dumpsters. I must say that it is rare for me not to see used conveyor belting of all kinds thrown in it stainless steel and plastic modular belting. (Let me be clear I am talking about our customers who use the belt in a process not you OEMs.)
Most of you know I am a conservationist and that I care deeply about limiting our use of natural resources. (You may recall that Wire Belt won one of the first Lean & Green Awards by Business NH Magazine last year.)
It just kills me to see good recyclable stainless steel being thrown away in the dumpster. Not only is it a waste of natural resources, its worth lots of money!
Stainless steel has been on a wild ride over the past few years. Luckily, the price has recently been falling. At its height, we were selling our scrap stainless steel wire to a local recycler for $0.97/lb. (Today, stainless steel scrap is considerably cheaper at around $0.12/lb). Our recycler provides the dumpster, and does all of the pickups and send us a check! All we had to do was put the stainless steel wire in the stainless steel dumpster. The average belt we ship weighs over 100 lbs. So for each belt you scrap, you are throwing away around $100! And now just think how many stainless steel belts do you use? (Im not just talking about Flat-Flex here). Further, I would be willing to bet that the company who picks up the dumpster for you is taking the used stainless steel belts out and selling them on their own. Over the course of a year you are throwing a serious amount of money away!
What about used plastic modular belting (PMB)? Where does it go? All I have ever seen or heard of is into a landfill, where it just sits there and doesnt rot away. Not only do you not get paid for it, you pay to have it hauled away. Yet another reason to use stainless steel belts such as Flat-Flex. Not only is it recyclable, but it is much more hygienic and easy to clean than plastic modular belts. Think of the money from the scrap dealer as a rebate!
You must understand that I am not a plastics engineer, nor do I know much about the plastics that are used in the PMB market. It is possible that some of this does get recycled. I am sure that if this is so, youll let me know. Please contact your local recycler for current scrapmetal pricing. Its about time you reclaim your costs.
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