Plastic scrap is not one material. It is half a dozen polymers with different end markets, and a buyer looking at a mixed bag has to price it as if it will all go to the lowest of them. The difference between a mixed rate and a segregated rate is rarely a matter of negotiation. It is a matter of what is physically in the bag.
Bin 1 — Rigid HDPE and PP
Crates, drums, caps, moulded parts and container bodies. These are the most valuable plastics most plants generate, because they wash and regrind cleanly into granule. Keep the two together if you must, but keep them away from film. A rigid lot with no film in it is a different product from a rigid lot with film wrapped through it.
Bin 2 — Clean stretch and shrink film
LDPE and LLDPE film from pallet wrapping and inbound packaging. Clean, clear film is a sought-after input; the same film with labels, tape, paper and strapping tangled in it is not. A dedicated film cage near the receiving dock, emptied before it gets trampled, does most of the work.
Bin 3 — Woven PP sacks and bags
Raw-material sacks, FIBCs and woven bags. Shake them out before they go in the bin — residual powder or granule adds weight you will be paid for at plastic rates only until somebody notices, and then the whole lot is downgraded.
Bin 4 — PET
Bottles, PET strapping and thermoformed trays. PET goes to a completely separate recycling line, and a small amount of PET in a polyolefin lot (or the other way round) is a contaminant, not a bonus.
Bin 5 — Everything else
Multilayer laminates, metallised film, foam, mixed-material parts and anything you cannot identify. Having an honest 'other' bin is what keeps the first four clean. Many of these materials still have a route — co-processing or EPR-linked channelisation — but they should never ride along inside a better category.
The one rule: keep it dry and keep it clean
Moisture, oil, food residue and dust are paid for as plastic and deducted as contamination, usually with a margin. A roof over the scrap area and a rule that nothing wet goes into the bins will do more for your realisation than any rate discussion.
Getting started
You do not need to start with all five. Separate rigid from film this month, and add the others as the habit sets in. If you want a second opinion on what your plant generates, our buying register lists the categories we price separately, and a free scrap audit will tell you which bins are worth the floor space.