§ 04.4Services / Recycling & Reprocessing
The last resort,
done properly
instead of cheaply.
Reprocessing is where a tote goes when it has genuinely failed, not when nobody bothered to check. Only 3.7% of our intake ends up here — but when a bottle does reach the granulator, it becomes single-stream, hot-washed, traceable recycled HDPE rather than a line on a landfill manifest.
- Share of intake
- 3.7%
- Process
- Granulate · hot wash · pelletize
- Output
- Flake and pellet
- Landfilled
- None
§ 04.4.1Reuse first, always
A reconditioner who grinds too eagerly is a scrap merchant.
The economics of grinding are simpler than the economics of reconditioning, which is exactly why it is tempting. We hold a hard rule: a bottle only reaches the granulator after it has failed a documented test.
Grinding a tote recovers its material and throws away its manufacturing — the moulding, the welding, the galvanising. That is roughly 60% of the embodied carbon gone for nothing if the bottle could still have held a liquid.
So we reprocess only what fails. Specifically, a bottle reaches the granulator when it:
- Loses pressure during the hold phase of the test cycle, or
- Shows stress crazing across a weld seam or around the valve boss, or
- Carries permeation staining that survives the appropriate wash programme, or
- Has heat distortion sufficient to compromise its geometry, or
- Has a fill history we cannot document to the standard the next duty requires
Even then, bottles that are watertight at atmospheric pressure get diverted to upcycled builds first — a second useful life before the material is recovered.
What makes our output worth more
Most recycled HDPE is a mystery mixture. Ours is single-stream: it comes from one product type, with known previous contents, hot-washed in our own tank. That traceability is why our flake sells into applications that will not accept generic post-industrial resin.
Where the carbon goes
- Reuse — washed & tested262lb CO₂e
- Rebottle — new bottle, old cage176lb CO₂e
- Reprocess — grind to pellet53lb CO₂e
- Landfill0lb CO₂e
Savings per tote, against manufacturing a new replacement. Reprocessing is worth five times less than reuse — which is precisely why it is the last option and not the first.
- 3.7%
- Of intake reprocessed
- 2.4%
- Diverted to upcycled builds
- 0
- Landfilled
- 100%
- Output sold domestically
The remainder is reused or rebottled.
Watertight but test-failed bottles.
Since 2016, without exception.
No export, no optimistic assumptions.
§ 04.4.2The process
Granulate, hot wash, dewater, pelletize.
- 01
Triage
Every unit arriving on a reprocessing load is still individually assessed. Units that can be reused or rebottled are pulled out — we have never ground a bottle that passed a test, and we are not going to start because a customer labelled a load as scrap.
Typically 20–40% of 'scrap' loads are recoverable
- 02
Disassembly and separation
Bottle, cage, pallet, valve and fittings are separated into material streams. Steel is baled, timber is chipped or repaired, polypropylene fittings go to their own stream.
Five separated streams
- 03
Granulation
Bottles are granulated into flake. Single product type, known previous contents, no mixed-stream contamination from unrelated packaging.
Single-stream feedstock
- 04
Hot wash
Flake is hot-washed to remove residual product, label adhesive and surface contamination. This is the step most cheap reprocessing skips, and the reason generic recycled HDPE has such variable odour and colour.
The step that determines resin quality
- 05
Dewatering and drying
Mechanical dewatering followed by thermal drying to the moisture specification the downstream moulder requires.
To specification per lot
- 06
Pelletizing and lot certification
Extruded and pelletized, then tested per lot for melt index, density, moisture and contamination. Certificate of analysis issued with every lot.
CoA per lot
| Output | Form | Typical melt index | Moisture | Typical application |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Natural HDPE flake | Flake, 10–12 mm | 0.3–0.9 g/10 min | <0.5% | Blow moulding, pipe |
| Natural HDPE pellet | Pellet | 0.3–0.9 g/10 min | <0.1% | Injection and blow moulding |
| Mixed-colour flake | Flake, 10–12 mm | 0.3–1.2 g/10 min | <0.5% | Non-cosmetic mouldings, pallets |
| PP fitting regrind | Flake | Varies | <0.5% | Non-critical injection moulding |
| Baled steel | Bale | — | — | Mill-grade scrap |
| Wood chip | Chip | — | — | Animal bedding, mulch |
Melt index and density are measured per lot and reported on the certificate of analysis. Colour is the main driver of value — natural flake from clear or white bottles is worth considerably more than mixed.
Buying recycled HDPE from us
If you mould HDPE and want recycled content with an origin you can actually describe to your own customers, this is the product. Single product type, known contents, hot-washed, CoA per lot.
- Minimum order
- One gaylord (approx. 1,000 lb)
- Bulk
- Truckload quantities available
- Documentation
- Certificate of analysis per lot
- Origin statement
- Supplied — single-stream IBC bottle
- No post-consumer mixed-stream contamination
- No export — all output sold in North America
- Residues captured and profiled before granulation
- Steel and timber separated, never landfilled
§ 04.4.3Send us a 'scrap' load
We'll probably find value in it you didn't.
Roughly a third of what customers send us labelled as scrap turns out to be reusable or rebottlable. We triage every load regardless of how it arrives described, and we pay for what we find.
- Triage
- Every unit assessed, regardless of load description
- Recovery from 'scrap' loads
- 20–40% typically reusable or rebottlable
- Payment
- At the applicable rate for what we actually find
- Certificate
- Reclaim Ledger figures for the diverted volume
§ 04.4.4Reprocessing, questioned
Technical and commercial.
Can recycled HDPE from totes go back into new totes?
Into non-food-contact mouldings, yes, and some tote manufacturers do use recycled content in pallets and non-contact components. Into the bottle itself, no — a food-contact or UN/DOT-rated bottle needs virgin resin for the contact layer under current practice.
How do you handle residues in a reprocessing load?
Exactly as on any inbound load: drained, profiled by compatibility class, consolidated and sent to a licensed processor. Granulation never happens with residue still in the bottle.
Why is natural flake worth more than mixed colour?
Because colour cannot be removed. Natural or white flake can be pigmented to whatever the moulder needs; mixed-colour flake produces a grey-brown resin that limits the applications it can serve.
Do you issue recycling certificates?
We issue a Reclaim Ledger certificate with the diverted tonnage and modelled impact, plus the disposition record showing destinations by stream. We do not issue a formal third-party-verified recycling certificate, because we are not third-party verified — see the assurance note on the Impact Report.
Last resort, not first
Before you call it scrap, let us look at it.
A third of what arrives here described as waste goes back out as a working container.