Recycling : Chimorel

Creating Jobs
Recycle Anything
What is the Cost?
Easter Island
Recycling Site Map

Recycle Computers
Active Recycling Program
Downsizing & Surplus Inventory
The New Recycling Story
Other Recycling Stories
Recycle Action Plan

There is an ominous cloud hanging over our world.
Recycling can create jobs and brighten the picture.
Click the picture to transform.
Recycle Action Plan

Create Jobs by Recycling

The research is done. The facts are in. Here are a few tidbits to whet your appetite:

Well-run recycling programs cost less to operate than waste collection, landfilling, and incineration.
The more people recycle, the cheaper it gets.
Recycling helps families save money, especially in communities with pay-as-you-throw programs.
Public sector investment in local recycling programs pays great dividends by creating private sector jobs. For every job collecting recyclables, there are 26 jobs in processing the materials and manufacturing them into new products.
Recycling creates 4-10+ jobs for every one job created in the waste management and disposal industries..
Thousands of U.S. companies have saved millions of dollars through their voluntary recycling programs. They wouldn’t recycle if it didn’t make economic sense.
On a per-ton basis, sorting and processing recyclables alone sustain 10 times more jobs than landfilling or incineration.
Some recycling-based paper mills and plastic product manufacturers employ on a per-ton basis 60 times more workers than do landfills.
For every 100 recycling jobs created, just 10 jobs were lost in the waste hauling and disposal industry, and 3 jobs were lost in the timber harvesting industry.
The costs for processing recyclables and yard debris are often much less than landfill or incinerator disposal tip fees, while the jobs created may be 9 times more than those created by landfilling or incineration.
Recycling 75% can create 1.1 million U.S. jobs, $236 billion in gross annual sales and $37 billion in annual payrolls.

Below is a table showing how many jobs are created per 10,000 tons per year in various industries by processing, recycling or reusing materials.

Statewide Employment Facts

In North Carolina, recycling industries employ over 8,700 people. For every 100 recycling jobs created, just 10 jobs were lost in the waste hauling and disposal industry, and 3 jobs were lost in the timber harvesting industry. Recycling employs more North Carolinians that the biotech and agriculture industries combined. An investment of $2,793,110 created forty-three jobs and retained another 18 jobs.
A survey of ten northeastern states found that they employ 103,413 people in recycling.
A 1992 survey in Washington found that this state had created 2,050 recycling-based jobs since 1989.
Massachusetts employs more than 9,000 people in more than 200 recycling enterprises. About half of these jobs are in the recycling-based manufacturing sector. These businesses represent more than half a billion dollars in value added to the state’s economy.
In California, meeting the state’s 50% recycling goal is expected to create about 45,000 recycling jobs, over 20,000 of which are slated to be in the manufacturing sector.
In Iowa, a 2001 study found that recycling-related end-use manufacturing operations sustain over 23,000 jobs and generate nearly $3.33 billion in total industrial output. The direct manufacturing jobs in Iowa’s recycling industry typically support high wages, on average $47,700 per job.
Two years after calling recycling a $40 million drain on the city, New York City leaders realized that a redesigned, efficient recycling system could actually save the city $20 million and they have now signed a 20-year recycling contract.

These facts may become outdated over time. Goggle Recycle Jobs to conduct current research.

Recycle Cost

     Have you taken the time to review Chimorel’s New Recycling Story? In this story we describe a plan to recycle 85%+% of everything that goes in to landfills. This is substantially higher than national, statewide and local goals ranging from 35% to 75%. It is potentially possible to recycle almost everything if our collective will is strong enough.
       Perhaps you checked out our discussion about creating jobs and training opportunities to learn that recycling 75% of our waste stream can create 1.1 million jobs. Maybe you learned that on average recycling creates 10 jobs for every 1 job that landfilling and incineration create.
       Did you know that burning plastic tends to create cancer causing toxins, but turning plastic into park benches and other products saves the equivalent of 2 people’s energy use for every ton not burned or landfilled?
       Recycling one ton of paper saves 17 oxygen producing trees, 2 barrels of oil (84 gallons), 7000 gallons of water, 4100 kilowatts of electricity, 5.3 million BTUs, 3.2 cubic yards of landfill space and 60 #s of air pollution (70% reduction). That is the equivalent of 7000# of a national newspaper, driving the average car from Dallas to Los Angeles (1260 miles), filling 18 average hot tubs, powering an average home for 6 months, running a gas clothes dryer not stop for 2 weeks (331.25 hours), filling one pickup truck with trash and eliminating the nitrogen oxide pollutants produced by a late model car driving 19.427 miles.
      As the materials we use to create things depletes and the demand for things grows, finding the materials to make things may eventually require us to mine landfills. The economics of mining landfills is not even close to the economic savings of reusing and recycling these same materials.
       This is not the place for an extensive discussion of all the benefits of recycling; however, we would like to suggest ways to recycle or reuse almost everything you can think of. We want to work with you to expand all the ways you recycle.

What Can We Recycle?

Yes, we can recycle almost everything. The real issue is are we willing to do what it takes. The picture at the top to the left shows a typical waste stream for many municipalities or perhaps even the nation as a whole. The numbers in the picture to the right should be considered relative. They will vary for each municipality. To reflect this variance we have rounded the percents to whole numbers. The following approximate percent is generated by residential populations for the typical municipality (arranged from hi to lo):

How to Reuse or Recycle

Keep it Separate | 95+%
Efficient recycling essentially means keeping different materials separate. If you noticed in The New Recycling Story we set up a variety of systems to keep materials separate. Whenever you are dealing with waste materials, you will find this simple axiom very helpful. Here are some examples:
You are cleaning up your yard after a major wind storm. Branches and other stuff are scattered all over the yard. There are logs, branches you can shred and mulch and 3+” branches you can’t shred with your chipper. There is a lot of paper and cans blown from you don’t know where. You tackle the paper and cans first with two empty garbage cans. You make $10.40 from the cans. The logs and 3″ branches are cut up and are used with the paper for a few of your next camping trips. The smaller branches are chipped up and used as mulch for your shrubs and bushes. The real mess turned into savings of about $50 in wood you didn’t have to buy and a little extra money from the cans. Your son got $35 for his college fund for helping with the cleanup. Keeping things separate made it all work.

Compost With Earth Worms | Treat as Biomass = 64%
       Paper, yard trimmings, food scraps, leather, textiles and wood or approximately 64% of a typical municipal waste stream is organic material. If we composted this material using earth worms we can create very health soil to grow crops and perhaps have an affect on the starving masses. This is a relatively simple process that does not require a high degree of technology or sophistication and which can be used almost anywhere in the world where there is a sustainable water supply.
       An alternative use for this 64% of the typical waste stream is to treat these materials as biomass. Biomass can be burned directly as fuel and has been almost since the beginning of human existence. Burning directly is typically not efficient and can have residual effects, potentially harmful to the environment. Conversion of biomass to a liquid or gaseous fuel is becoming increasingly popular as witnessed by the frequently 10% ethanol found in gasoline. Depending on the biomass source for the ethanol produced, there can be negative consequences here as well.
     Biomass fuels can be used to generate relatively clean energy, but are still relatively expensive compared to alternate fuels such as natural gas. Cellulose biomass feed stocks can produce sugar for about 10 cents/# as opposed to corn based feed stocks which produce sugar for 18+ cents/#. This food vs fuel issue is beginning to become an area of increasing concern.
       Enzymes from plants and microorganisms, as well, as bacteria and other microbes, can be used in industrial chemical reactions to make a number of every day products These products include, but are not limited to, glues, cleaners, solvents and plastics. Specifically we could create biodegradable packing peanuts, plastic bags, composite building materials, composite materials for the auto industry, cups, forks, spoons, knives, plates, food storage containers, T-shirts, pillows and potentially many similar items. These alternate uses for biomass yield a higher profit margin than does fuel so there is a significant motivation for ongoing research in this area.

Paper, Paperboard, Wood = 34%
Paper can be classified into six main categories – newsprint, printing and writing papers, case-making materials, packaging papers & boards, household and toilet tissues, and industrial and special purpose papers. Wood can be processed into essentially all of the above and can also become a wide variety of household and commercial products.
Recycling paper, paperboard and wood can create plasterboard/drywall, thermal insulation, cat litter, molded disposable hospital products, animal bedding, protective packaging, industrial wipes, napkins, bath tissue, facial tissue, paper towels, toilet paper, copy paper, cover stock, newsprint, envelopes, business cards, labels, text paper, cotton fiber, tube stock, liner board, boxes, press-board, wrapping paper, message pads, notebooks, linen pads, plates, bowls, trays, other food service containers, calendars, coloring books, recycling containers, absorbents, refuse bags, cushioning, molded packaging, adding machine rolls, binders, computer greenbar and much more.

Plastic, Metal, Glass = 27+%
       If these materials are kept separate, everything can be recycled. If commingled, recycling becomes more expensive and it becomes more difficult to recycle everything.
       Plastic: There are seven types of coded plastic, used largely for containers: (1) PETE (polyethylene terephthalate), which can become soft drink bottles, peanut butter jars, fiberfill, sleeping bags, carpet fibers, rope, pillows, etc. (2) HDPE (high density polyethylene), which can become milk jugs, butter tubs, detergent bottles, motor oil bottles, flower pots, trash cans, traffic barrier cones, etc. (3) PVC (polyvinyl chloride), which can become shampoo bottles, cooking oil bottles, fast food service items, drainage and irrigation pipes, etc. (4) LDPE (low density polyethylene), which can become grocery bags, bread bags, shrink wrap, margarine tub tops, etc. (5) PP (polypropylene), which can become yogurt containers, straws, pancake syrup bottles, bottle caps, plastic lumber, battery cases, manhole steps, etc. (6) PS (polystyrene), which can become disposable hot cups, packaging materials, meat trays, plastic lumber, cassette boxes, flower pots, etc. (7) Other/Mixed plastic, which is more difficult to recycle, but can become plastic lumber, etc.
       There are actually thousands of different plastics, many of which require higher levels of processing/ separation to be recycled. One popular plastic, ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene), can become computer cases, automotive parts, business equipment, appliance components, electrical components, etc.
       Metal: A few of the thousands of metals include aluminum, brass, copper, gold, iron/steel and silver. All metals can be recycled. Knowing where to recycle and how to process certain types of metal requires a steep learning curve.
       Glass: There are at least nine types of glass, including bottle/colored glass, plate glass, safety/laminate glass and more. Bottle glass needs to be color sorted. Other types of glass can be recycled, but require adequate quantities and appropriate knowledge to be recycled appropriately.

Rubber, Leather, Textiles, Other Items = 14%
       These materials are recycled less frequently than other materials. To make it efficient these materials must be kept separated and should be gathered in quantities sufficient to make recycling worthwhile.
       Rubber & Tires: Rubber can be made into a wide variety of mats, sheets, flooring, tiles, play ground surfaces, track and field footing, equestrian arena surfacing, stall coverings, dock bumpers, etc. It can also be a fuel source for pyrolysis and gasification.
       Leather: Leather can be recycled into a wide variety of upholstery, boots, fabric, bags, jewelry, furniture, belts, clothing, flooring, counter tops, wall systems, etc.
Textiles: Textiles and clothing can be re-purposed overseas for developing markets in Asia, Africa, Europe and South America. Textiles can also be reprocessed back to their original fiber and made into a wide variety of clothing and other textile items.
      Other: Approximately 5% of the waste stream consists of other materials like batteries, chemicals, hazardous waste, toner cartridges and similar things that may consist of recyclable materials that are difficult to process. Even in the other category things can be recycled if kept/processed separately and gathered in sufficient quantity. By keeping things separate and developing systems to process in sufficient quantity we can potentially recycle or reuse 95+% of the entire waste stream.

Recycling Action Plan

Collect your aluminum cans. Bring 1-3+ bags (rinsed and flattened) to Chimorel.
Bring your ewaste to Chimorel. We’ll pick up 20+ items.
Initiate a paper, aluminum can, ewaste program and more at your company. Initial cost for containers easily offset by dumpster fee reduction/elimination.
Initiate a software storage and protection program.
Create an active recycling program in your neighborhood.
Support our capital campaign to establish/acquire our first Collection Center.
Continue capital campaigns to establish & acquire state wide, national, international Collection Centers
Learn about and support funding plastic reclaim centers, recycling industrial parks, etc (see New Recycling Story) to change the lackluster response to recycling, now China and other foreign countries no longer take plastic and other recyclables that fill our oceans and landfills.
Be an investor in our plastic reclaim facilities and environmental industrial parks.

Compost With Earthworms

Save Money

Recycling is never entirely free. Recycling requires you to do something. The cost may involve time, energy and/or money. Not recycling is very expensive. That is why we invite you to join Chimorel’s Active Recycling program.
Recycling can save you money. Recycling saves taxpayers money for their city. Trash removal and landfilling is expensive. Recycling saves money and resources over extracting raw materials. As you explore this area of our website you may uncover other ways recycling can save you money. We hope you pick up a few of these diamonds.
Recycling can make you money. Recycling creates jobs. By recycling your materials in the right way you can pick up a little pocket money. By working with us as an Active Recycler, perhaps even a Neighborhood Recycling Coordinator, you potentially could add enough income to pay part of your kids college, create a career or achieve other significant goals.

Chimorel's Active Recycling Program

We have recycled thousands of computers and tons of other materials. Periodically we establish a recycling program at environmentally conscious companies. In Ohio we currently recycle ewaste for the City of Columbus, Franklin and Delaware counties. We would like to expand the consumer and business side of our Active Recycling program and look forward to the possibility of working with you.

We need 25+ active recyclers in your neighborhood to establish your Active Recycling Program.
We need 250+ active recyclers to place an Order for Collection Carts and bring on our first Neighboorhood Recycling Coordinator.
We need to place at least one order for collection carts before we can establish real collection routes.
We need 5000+ active recyclers to establish the first dedicated Collection Center.

Our full Active Recycling program is in the development stage. Click Computer Pricing Matrix to explore the current cost of recycling computers with Chimorel. Click Chimorel’s Active Recycling Program above to learn more. Click The New Recycling Story to take a somewhat visionary trip into the not so distant future. When you click any of these links, you will leave this section and can return by closing that page.

Not Recycling

Not recycling is very expensive !!! The ultimate cost of not recycling potentially is the destruction of our planet. If our consumer driven instincts dominate, we may use up our resources, fight over what is left and turn our beautiful planet into something equivalent to Easter Island.
Recycling alone will not change the ultimate penalty for continuing and expanding our consumer driven society, but it will change the focus and slow things down. Each time you drop a can or bottle into your recycle bin, you have the opportunity to think about what is happening in our world. Spend a few seconds contemplating the green world inside the chasing arrows and think about the ultimate price we pay by not recycling.

       Easter Island is one of the most isolated territories on Earth. The island consists of a triangular land mass measuring approximately 7×14 miles. The island was largely formed from volcanic rock. There is very little depth to its soil structure.
     In the early 1200s a small group of Polynesian farmers settled the island. At that time the island was reported to contain perhaps 16 million trees. It is said these farmers practiced a slash & burn agriculture which created open spaces. The early farmers did not know that the soil was not as fertile as that from which they came and replacement vegetation grew much more slowly. As the population grew the trees disappeared.
       It is also said that an infestation of Polynesian rats along with overpopulation may have led to deforestation of the native large broad-leaf forests and palms. This in turn led to extinction of many natural resources such as native birds and seabirds. By over-exploiting its resources its inhabitants eventually endured famines, epidemics of disease (tuberculosis, smallpox and dysentery), cannibalism, civil war and slave raids decimating its population.
Although significant restoration has been attempted, much of the rich culture, evidenced by some 900 giant stone statues weighing 13 to 82 tons, was lost as the population declined. Today the Easter Island story is considered evidence of what can happen when man does not take care of his environment.

Create Jobs

State Wide Employment Facts

Recycle Computers

Pricing Matrix | Risks of Improper Disposal | Why Donate Your Equipment?
Reduce Disposal Costs | What Happens to Our Computers? | Down Stream Vendors
Potential Disposal Costs

Recycle Anything

What Can We Recycle?
How to: Keep It Separate | Compost With Earthworms / Treat as Biomass
How To Recycle: Paper, Paperboard, Wood | Plastic, Metal, Glass
How To Recycle: Rubber, Leather, Textiles, Other Items

What is the cost?

Recycling is not free, but you can save
Active Recycling with Chimorel
Not recycling is very expensive