What our granulator eats
Recycling is our fourth choice, so the granulator is a confession as much as a machine. Here is everything we fed it in 2023 and why each container ended up there instead of somewhere better.
- Sheet
- 86
- Revision
- 2026-10
- Scale
- 1:1
- Drawn at
- Peoria IL
Every container that goes through the granulator is one we failed to save. That framing sounds dramatic until you look at the reasons, at which point it becomes a to-do list.
| Reason the container was granulated | Units | Share | Could it have been avoided? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bottle crazed or split beyond rebottling value | 1,420 | 29% | Partly — most were stored outdoors uncovered |
| Solvent or fuel absorption into the wall | 980 | 20% | No. Chemistry decided this at the filler |
| Undocumented history, no resale path | 742 | 15% | Yes. A declaration would have saved these |
| Contaminated residue, not washable | 610 | 12% | Partly — rinsing on site would have helped |
| Structural cage failure plus bottle damage | 494 | 10% | No |
| Brand-protected destruction requested | 398 | 8% | No — the customer required it |
| Cut, drilled or modified by a previous owner | 300 | 6% | Yes. Never modify a good container |
The 21% that did not have to happen
Add the undocumented histories to the previously-modified containers and you get 1,042 containers — 21 percent of everything we ground — that were destroyed by paperwork and impatience rather than by chemistry or wear. Those are the ones that genuinely annoy us.
The undocumented cases are the simplest problem in this industry and the most stubborn. A container with no last-contents declaration cannot be re-released for product service, no matter how good it looks, because we cannot sell a history we cannot prove and nobody serious will buy one. The declaration costs nothing and takes two minutes. Without it a $50 asset becomes a $12 bag of regrind.
Where the material went
| Output | Quantity | Destination | Specification |
|---|---|---|---|
| Natural HDPE regrind | 358 tons | Pipe and profile extrusion, two regional buyers | 8–12 mm, <1% moisture |
| Mixed-colour HDPE regrind | 146 tons | Pallet and crate moulders | 8–12 mm, colour sorted |
| Baled galvanised steel | 119 tons | Regional electric-arc mills | Mill-ready bales |
| Wood fibre | 26 tons | Mulch and boiler fuel | Chipped |
| Manifested residual | 13 tons | Licensed processor | Sludge, gaskets, adhesive, filter media |
- Bottles are granulated whole after valve and fitting removal; hardware is sorted by polymer and metal.
- Colour sorting matters more than people expect — natural regrind sells for materially more than mixed.
- Cages are sheared and baled. Galvanised tube is a clean, high-yield scrap stream and the mills like it.
- Witnessed destruction for brand-protected containers comes with weights, photos and a certificate.
The part we are not happy about
Thirteen tons of residual went to a licensed processor and some of it ended in a landfill: wash sludge, gasket rubber, label adhesive and filter media. Filter media is the biggest line and we have no recycling route for it. It is the single largest item in the three percent of our intake that does not get diverted, and every year we write the same paragraph about it.
- Adhesive-free placards, so de-labelling stops generating a waste stream — targeted for 2027.
- Recyclable gasket compounds, which means qualifying a material that performs as well as EPDM — 2028.
- A sludge-to-fuel partner, which exists regionally and which we have not yet closed — 2029.
- Filter media. Honestly, no plan yet. That is the gap.
Help us shrink the 21%
Send a last-contents declaration with every load, even an informal one. It is the difference between a container that gets another five years and one that becomes pellet.