Waste Market

One of my more fulfilling work was when I was with a solid waste management project for Metro Manila. I am glad that it is now more popular with the waste markets set-up in malls. Below is a rundown of the buying prices of "trash."

PAPER:
A. Ledgers (WLB) = P10/kg
- white paper, used or printed bond paper, computer paper, white notebooks (spiral
binding should be removed first)
B. Newsprint (ONP) = P5.50/kg
- old newspapers and magazines (make sure they are not wet, yellowed, sunburned, or
more than 12 months old)
C. Old corrugated cartons (OCC) - sorry, don't know the price for these.
D. Mixed waste = P2/kg
- chipboard (ex. gray boxes), colored paper, colored OCC (ex. Zesto boxes), folders,
newspapers that are more than 12 months old

(For confidential documents, shred them first or have the recycler shred them for you)

METAL:
A. Aluminum = P55/kg
B. metal solids = P10/kg
C. tin cans or "lata" = P5/kg

PLASTIC:
A. Clean PET bottles = P23/kg
B. Dirty PET bottles = P18/kg
C. Transparent HDPE/PP = P17/kg
D. Colored HDPE/PP = P12/kg
E. Plastic spoons and forks = P12/kg
F. Plastic cups = P10/kg
G. Assorted plastic scrap = P5/kg
H. PP straw = P5/kg
I. Orange PVC pipes = P3/kg
J. Black PVC pipes = P1/kg

Some kinds of plastics:

PET = polyethylene terephthalate
HDPE = high density polyethylene
LDPE = low density polyethylene
PVC = polyvinyl chloride
PP = polypropylene

Plastics are usually coded with numbers of letters (look for the triangular recycling symbol). You can sort them accordingly.