Quote:
Originally Posted by Cynette
I'm the manager of my manufacturing location's "Recycle Center" and our scrap revenue is an important source of income for our facility and carefully monitored. I would never consider giving up one of my largest value streams as a donation. I would have to believe that most other manufacturing locations have the same belief. Even small companies should have recycling programs. (Especially in Connecticut, where recycling is mandated.)
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It's a lot easier in CT to get a restaurant or bar to donate their soda/beer/water cans and bottles to your team to return for the 5¢ deposit value than it is to get a company to donate their scrap metal.
For restaurants, it can be a hassle to bring these cans and bottles back to a redemption facility to get the 5¢ per item deposit back, so these are just put in the single-stream recycling bins. Since the single stream recycling bins are often revenue neutral (it doesn't cost anything, but nor do you get anything), getting donations isn't particularly difficult. Our team raises over $1000 per year through various can/bottle recycling drives.
But because of the much stricter industrial recycling laws, most companies have a variety of recycling dumpsters for cardboard, various metals, and more. (It's actually illegal to throw certain items in the garbage that can be recycled) Since these companies are paid for the value of scrap inside, they are not only not interested in donating this scrap, but often install security measures (padlocks, fences, surveillance cameras) to protect this revenue stream.
Our team internally recycles a lot stuff, especially aluminum. The last time we went to the scrap dealer we made $300 through aluminum and steel recycling. We also have literally dozens of old FRC lead-acid batteries* and computer parts waiting for the next city-wide bulk recycling day.
* Nearly all of our bad batteries are the non-Exide batteries we'd had in FRC since 2007. We have nearly decade old Exide batteries that still have better performance than the newer MK batteries only a season or two old.