Any experience of the trade in bottles for recycling?

Post by **kumphawapi** » June 7, 2011, 4:20 am

Has anyone had any experience of the trade in recycled plastic bottles? I know that every so often someone comes round and will buy the plastic bottles, and see people going through the bins to salvage waste.
Now a family member has proposed that they will earn some money by going round buying plastic bottles and then reselling them. To me it seems that the chance of making any money is quite remote. I know of several yards piled high with plastic bottles.
So does anyone know - what price do you get paid for your waste bottles?
Where is the person who buys them, taking them - any idea what they get paid for them?
What is driving this trade? Or is it some imaginary get rich by recycling scheme?
How many kilos of bottles would you need to buy and sell to make 100 baht?

Thanks for your help

Post by **maaka** » June 7, 2011, 9:05 am

my info is afew years old, but there used to be a big recycling place in Phitsalok ( spelling is wrong) named the Wongpanit Company, it used to buy plastics, and waste off anyone, and would send it on to China, Burma and other places to go into texiles, and things of that nature..you used to get 3 - 10 baht per kilo for plastic, but as I say my info is years old, but the company should still be running, and may have branches elsewhere now, closer to Kumpawapi...some plastic were no good for recycling such as PVA, so best to check afew things out before you end up with tons of bottles in the backyard that you cant get rid of..alot of the push for recycling is coming from the UN, greenies and others, because with the increase in populations in China /asia and the recent climb up the economic ladder like China, its creating way to much waste, so the push is to at least try and recycle some of it...

Post by **jimboLV** » June 7, 2011, 9:26 am

My wife's family collects recycle stuff, cardboard, plastic, bottles, etc. Every couple of months they load up the pickup and carry it off somewhere. The last time they got about 1000 baht for a couple of pickup loads. They don't go around picking through trash, just save it up from three families that live close by. She did tell me that they get one baht apiece for my whisky bottles but that's the extent of my knowledge of the economics of it. My sense is that many Thai recycle just to make a little extra spending money. When we lived in Udon the little guy that used to sweep the streets would pick through trash. I used to give him my whisky bottles and he seemed to be overjoyed. Doubt if you could get rich or even make a living doing that but it is an easy way to pick up a few baht now and then.

Post by **old-timer** » June 7, 2011, 12:03 pm

OT can't help you much with the price and profitability of plastic bottles. What I can tell you is that a full box of Leo empties fetches 30 baht from the local collectors. You need to have 12 empty bottles and box in tact. My kids go mad if I mislay a bottle as it messes up their recycling/pocket money. Most Thai houses have some bottles and cardboard saved up for the re sale to the scrap collectors as it is worth something. I believe Mash (cherm chim shopkeeper) pays his entire staff their wages with cardboard.

OT.................... $\:D/$

Post by **parrot** » June 7, 2011, 1:07 pm

Photos of recycling center along the Nongwahsaw Highway, about kilo 26.

Price list photo complements of Bangkok Post, 7 June.

If you're going around buying used plastic bottles to sell to a recycler, you're in effect a middle man......the collector has to make some money, the recycling center has to make some money, and you have to make some money.

Post by **kumphawapi** » June 7, 2011, 10:45 pm

Excellent. Thanks very much. Just the information I need.

Post by **wayneor0** » June 8, 2011, 8:24 am

your family is wecome to all ours [except beer bottles] from our pizza shop kumphawapi

Post by **Jed** » June 8, 2011, 8:51 am

Very nice of them to translate into English for the English-speaking recyclers!

Post by **parrot** » June 8, 2011, 10:06 am

"English-speaking recyclers!"
Many moons ago (1996), there was an expat (I was told he was an Aussie) who peddled a modified samlor near the main market across from the Banchiang Hotel. He collected recyclables from around the market area. He dressed like a trash collector and spoke fluent Isan.....my wife said with a gutter mouth. People told us he had been operating in that area for several years......he blended right in with the natives. I can't imagine he was here legally.......but don't know for sure.

Post by **maaka** » June 8, 2011, 12:00 pm

Kumpawapi, apparantly you get 21 baht a kilo for bottles, ( plastic I presume , as that was the question I asked )from Wongpanit Company, Phitasanlok, according to a contact I have that lives next door, and her friends works there..but best to give them a ring, and shop around..there will be alot of bottle over Chiangmai way in the next few years, as they have the Asian Expo, Flower Show, and the Golf thingy on..there is big money in recycling in thailand, so I am told, but do your research first na ka..

Post by **dtammakhung** » September 15, 2016, 2:38 pm

Can anyone tell me what they pay for beer bottles now (beer drinking a new hobby of mine, recidivist, so they are piling up into a huge stack in the garage), beer bottles withouot a box, whiskey bottles, hong tong bottles, glass olive oil bottles, plastic milk bottles, Nestle PET water bottles. Getting 9 baht a kilo for Nestle plastic PET bottles down here in the South, made nearly 200 baht today, the kilograms soon add up with thosee plastic PET bottles, very surprising. They didn't want the Mountain Dew green bottles. Have a couple of kilograms of plastic egg cartons, will see if they will take them. Also the 220 gram gas cans, how much per killogram are they paying for them in Udon?

Post by **georgioGastapo** » September 15, 2016, 5:02 pm

thanks for the price lists parrot.
i make a point of putting the recyclables aside and collecting them in the various hotel rooms i occupy and give them to the cleaners separately or leave them separated in the room on exit.
now i can know just how much happy i have donated.

before i had no clue, but had to judge how happy by the facial expressions of the receivers.

Post by **pal52** » September 15, 2016, 5:53 pm

georgioGastapo wrote:thanks for the price lists parrot.
i make a point of putting the recyclables aside and collecting them in the various hotel rooms i occupy and give them to the cleaners separately or leave them separated in the room on exit.
now i can know just how much happy i have donated. before i had no clue, but had to judge how happy by the facial expressions of the receivers.

The price list was from 2011 5 years go

Post by **georgioGastapo** » September 15, 2016, 7:19 pm

pal52 wrote:
georgioGastapo wrote:thanks for the price lists parrot.
i make a point of putting the recyclables aside and collecting them in the various hotel rooms i occupy and give them to the cleaners separately or leave them separated in the room on exit.
now i can know just how much happy i have donated. before i had no clue, but had to judge how happy by the facial expressions of the receivers.
The price list was from 2011 5 years go

yes i have been giving my recyclables to the thai room cleaners for longer than that