Services · recycling
The last resort, done properly.
- Share of inbound
- ≈ 11%
- Pricing
- Against the OCC index
- Documentation
- Weights and destination mills
Price your OCC
Tell us tonnage per month, whether it is baled or loose, and how contaminated it typically is. Photographs help.
Answer first
Recycling is good. Being the first answer is the problem.
Corrugated recycling in North America works — recovery rates are high and the fibre genuinely goes back into new board. The problem is that it has become the default, applied to containers that had three or four working trips left in them. Every one of those premature recycling events costs water, heat, freight and a share of fibre length that never comes back.
So we run recycling as the exit of last resort. About 11% of inbound material takes it. That number being low is the point of the whole operation, and we publish it rather than hide it.
Service
What we take, and what it has to look like.
| Material | Accepted | Price basis | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mill-spec OCC bales | Yes | OCC index per ton | Best price. Bale weight 1,100 – 1,400 lb typical |
| Loose corrugated, sorted | Yes | Index less handling | Volume dependent; often better sold as reusable stock |
| Loose corrugated, mixed | Case by case | Index less sorting | We sort here; the deduction reflects real labour |
| Wax-coated corrugated | No | — | Contaminates the furnish; requires a specialist outlet |
| Food-soiled board | No | — | Rejected at the dock, without exception |
| Boxes with liners still in | Yes, with deduction | Index less separation | Pulling liners first is worth more than it costs you |
| Mixed paper / office grades | No | — | Different market; we will point you to one |
Process
From your dock to a mill, documented.
- 01
Assess and quote
Volume, format and contamination level, priced against the current index with the index level stated so you can check it.
- 02
Collect
Roll-off placement for staged accumulation, or scheduled trailer collection. Equipment supplied by us where volume supports it.
- 03
Sort, salvage, bale
Anything reusable is pulled out first and offered back to you as a credit — we would rather buy it than bale it.
- 04
Weigh, sell, report
Weighbridge ticket, mill destination and tonnage recorded, then fed into your quarterly diversion statement.
Questions
Recycling, answered.
What is OCC?
What do you pay for baled cardboard?
Should I bale or should you?
Do you provide diversion documentation?
Before the baler
What we pull out of a scrap load, and what it is worth to you.
Every load booked as recycling gets sorted first. On a typical mixed accumulation this finds several hundred dollars nobody had accounted for.
| What was in it | Share | Booked as | Actually worth | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reusable gaylords, 2A – 3A | 22% | OCC at $80/ton | $3.10 – $5.50 each | ≈ 40× per unit |
| Repairable gaylords, 4A | 11% | OCC | $1.75 – $2.60 each | ≈ 20× per unit |
| Single-size cartons | 9% | OCC | $0.42 – $1.85 each | ≈ 8× per unit |
| Sound panels for fabrication | 7% | OCC | $0.90 – $2.20 each | ≈ 12× per unit |
| Pallets, A and B | 6% | Disposal cost | $3.00 – $7.00 each | Cost becomes revenue |
| Genuinely spent board | 41% | OCC | OCC at index | Correctly booked |
| Contamination and waste | 4% | Disposal | Disposal | Correctly booked |
Bale quality
What moves an OCC load up or down a grade.
Ten minutes of separation at source routinely moves a load up a grade. These are the specific things mills price against.
Improves the price
- Consistent bale weight and dimensions
- Dry material throughout, including the bottom course
- Corrugated only — no mixed paper grades
- Liners and plastics pulled before baling
- Tape and labels minimised where practical
- Consistent, predictable volumes the mill can plan around
Downgrades or rejects a load
- Wax-coated corrugated — contaminates the furnish
- Food residue or spoilage
- Plastic film, strapping and liners left in
- Metal — banding, staples in volume, fixings
- Wet or previously wet material
- Mixed office paper, newsprint or boxboard
Should you own a baler?
An honest answer, including when it costs us volume.
Above roughly four tons a month, on-site baling usually pays for itself. Below that, our collection is normally cheaper than owning equipment.
- Under 2 tons / month
- Do not buy a baler. Loose collection or a shared roll-off is cheaper than the lease, the power, the maintenance and the floor space.
- 2 – 4 tons / month
- Marginal. A vertical baler might pay back over three to four years. Model it properly before committing — and count the labour.
- 4 – 10 tons / month
- A vertical baler usually pays back inside two years. You sell bales at the index rather than paying for loose hauls.
- Over 10 tons / month
- A horizontal baler is normally justified, and at this volume you should be negotiating directly with mills as well as with us.
- What people forget
- Labour to feed it, power, maintenance, the floor space it occupies, and the fact that a baler creates an incentive to bale reusable containers.
- The middle path
- We place a roll-off for accumulation and bale here. You get index pricing without equipment, and we pull the reusable material out first.
Let us check for reusable stock before it goes in the baler.
We routinely pull several hundred sellable boxes out of loads that were booked as scrap — and we pay you for them.