Problem explained
Leftover plastic and rejected parts are thrown away, though many jobs could mold them again.
How it works today
The plant molds plastic parts to its customers' designs on 26 injection presses.
Every shot of melted plastic makes the parts and a runner, the channel of plastic that feeds them.
Runners and rejected parts are binned at the press and thrown away.
Yet about half of the resin runs on jobs whose customers allow regrind, plastic ground up to be molded again.
What we saw
- On the visit we saw the bins at presses in both aisles, and tipped into the dumpster at the scrap dock.
- We saw no grinder beside any press, and we did not see the bins weighed.
What it costs
- By our estimate, about 37,500 pounds per year could be molded again, about $56,300 of new resin.
- Fixing this could save about $48,000 of it per year, after what the grinders cost to run.