Sign Shop Recycling by the numbers (real evidence it's worth it)

[Typestries]

How green is your large/grand format printer?

Totals in for 6 months of scrap recycling: 192 cubic yards of plastic kept from the landfill (almost 7 full garbage trucks), $3800 in disposal costs saved, $82 check in the mail from the recycler.

Here's what we recycled:

• Acrylic and polycarb
• PVC
• Polystyrene
• Coroplast

We sort the material into plastic crates, then a 53' trailer came and we filled it 3 crates high, front to back.

Yes, it takes some effort, and added labor costs. The environmental savings are huge. Factoring in the labor we're still way ahead of the curve.

If anyone is interested, PM me and I can give you more details. This is very doable.

Not included in these totals, all of our banner scraps go into a 4 x 4 x 4 bin out front. I post on CL and got the word out about free tarps. Painters love em. So do the boy scouts for under tents. We've filled that thing to the top 5 times already. I have not quantified these savings, but it's easily 100 cubic yards of vinyl out of the landfill (for now).

That's a good thing!

 

[Shovelhead]

Nothing wrong with that. I can respect that. Thank you!

 

[Craig Sjoquist]

Good to hear about recycling makes sense indeed, knows it pains me to see all the waste America has and throws out day after day.

My WW1 grand father said he barely had food to eat when in combat he made sure each crumb was ate. one thing he taught me and sunk in well, in Viet-Nam for 6 months I drove the trash truck from the mess hall to dump seeing hundreds of people going through the trash to eat, you bet I eat 99 % of what I order and recycle or repair or reuse or resell everything else, even pick up metals others toss out and recycle would like to pick up more like plastic or cardboard, will see once I get my truck running.

 

[jiarby]

but it's easily 100 cubic yards of vinyl out of the landfill (for now).

yep... it ALL ends up in the landfill eventually, as soon as whoever you give it to is done with it!

 

[ForgeInc]

Great post!

 

[showcase 66]

Thats cool. Where I am at, I can only recycle aluminum cans. I tried to take a bunch of scrap aluminum from sheets I had cut and they wouldnt take it. The city has designated trash cans for cardboard around town but nobody breaks the boxes down and they are full the day they are emptied. The recycling place here will take cardboard but I have to pay them 25 to come pick it up and see nothing from it. Doesnt make you want to recycle when you have to pay for it.

 

[signswi]

Nice work!

 

[smdgrfx]

Get this - In Houston. I have city trash service. The city provides residents with recycle bins but will not give me one (a business). The business next to mine is electrician services, but since he operates out of a house, he gets one (a recycle bin) and is able to avoid commercial fees. My electricity, trash, phone, cable, and water are more expensive because I am commercial - yet me and the neighbor use the same water pipes, electric lines, phone line, cable line, and trash truck. Go figure.

 

[10sacer]

I take it a step further and have an industrial chipper/shredder that we put all our coro, pvc, acrylic, etc. in that is 1/4" and under and it chops the living snot out of it into small manageable chunks. We then take those bags of material to a plastics recycler on a random trip to pick up sheet material from one of our suppliers.

 

[bob]

No doubt it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy to do all that stuff. Even to the extent of others actually paying you for your efforts, futile as they might be. Perhaps feeling good through self-delusion is sufficient reason to do that sort of thing, but as far as having some sort of effect on anything, disabuse your mind. It has no measurable effect on the external reality. None, nada, zip, zero.

 

[Westcoast Sign Guy]

amazing how "feeling good" sells, and sparks the emotion to pay more for something that is unnecessary. Legislation is even passed and lobbied so you and I pay for a product someone else uses that is handicapped in the market place that otherwise would never make it by itself based on it's own merit.

Look at all the rebates, tax incentives, stimulus, money in energy one can get for going "green". We all pay for it. We're so stupid.

 

[andy]

No doubt it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy to do all that stuff. Even to the extent of others actually paying you for your efforts, futile as they might be. Perhaps feeling good through self-delusion is sufficient reason to do that sort of thing, but as far as having some sort of effect on anything, disabuse your mind. It has no measurable effect on the external reality. None, nada, zip, zero.

Well you ARE the guy who admits to pouring toxic ink slops down holes in your back garden aren't you? The fact that you don't recycle anything and merrily pollute your own environment whenever you can speaks volumes.

Recycling puts thousands of pounds in my bank account over the course of a year and saves me a few thousand more in the skip clearances which I no longer need.

Last month I made $800 in recycling payments... tubs of scrap metal, acrylic, PVC and polymetal swapped for cold hard cash. No skips to pay for, no effort, no hassle.

Clearly the most intelligent thing to do is burn this raw material or hide it under the flower bed... I mean, what kind of MORON would actually want to swap their scraps and off cuts for real money?

 

[Typestries]

I take it a step further and have an industrial chipper/shredder that we put all our coro, pvc, acrylic, etc. in that is 1/4" and under and it chops the living snot out of it into small manageable chunks. We then take those bags of material to a plastics recycler on a random trip to pick up sheet material from one of our suppliers.

That's on the list, but no room for it (for now)

which one are you using?

 

[ddarlak]

It has no measurable effect on the external reality. None, nada, zip, zero.

how do you even exist in this world.... i mean, being so superior in intelligence must make dealing with these walking flesh-water bags almost intolerable....

 

[UFB Fabrication]

We recylce everything we can. Paper goes to the scouts. Steel, Alum and plastic of course I get $$ for. Steel goes into a big rolloff type dumpster and when it full we call and the take away leaving a new one. Plastics goes away in totes. We sort out the alum 3000 series 5000 series and painted. I got 97 cents a pound for 5052 a week or so ago. We have even recycled dead putors.

 

[binki]

our city has recycle dumpsters in our lot and we put everything in there and several times a day people come by and pick out what they want. i have even seen several other merchants digging through the trash as well.