Cardboard, pallet strapping, shrink wrap—it’s filling your waste containers and your local landfill. You may be paying a hauler to take it to a recycling facility, but it’s still a nuisance—and every haul costs money.
You don’t have to pay to have these materials hauled away—and you may even be able to turn a profit on it, said Blake Gordon, a recycling industry thought leader and General Manager of Digital Trading at Georgia-Pacific Recycling, at the 2025 ISSA Show North America.
“There are too many facilities out there that have this material, and they consider it to be waste,” Gordon explained. “They pay somebody to take care of it for them. But what we’re realizing is that they’re not understanding that there’s value in that material to sell. We’re here to try and help incent them to take the steps that they’re paying somebody else to take. Somebody else is getting paid for their material.”
Why Increasing Recycling is Important—And Potentially Profitable
Georgia-Pacific Recycling, part of Georgia-Pacific, includes some percentage of recycled content in many of its products, Gordon said. The recycling arm of the company sources this recycled material from recycling facilities and organizations that are producing recyclable materials.
“You’re paying a waste hauler to take [your material] to a material recovery facility (MRF). That MRF is then taking your material and everybody else’s, sorting it, baling it, and selling it to someone like us,” Gordon said. “The failure mode along that can be, did it make its way to the MRF, or did it go to the landfill? When you’re paying somebody to take it away, you’re kind of losing control of what’s happening to it, in a sense.”
Demand for products incorporating recycled content is growing, but less material is being recycled, Gordon added.
“People are not aware that there’s a market for this,” Gordon said. “If we’re sorting it and we’re taking these steps, you can get paid for this. You can hit your ESG goals, increase your landfill diversion, and it doesn’t have to cost you. It can cost you less and maybe even make it a profit center.”
How to Recycle for Profit
To get started, you’ll first want to understand what materials you have. You can reap the most profit if you can fill a truck with materials—that’s about 20 tons of recyclables, Gordon noted. The most common materials include:
- Plastics: Types 2, 3, and 5 are popular. This includes water bottles, the plastic straps that go around pallets, HDPE (the material detergent bottles and commercial trash cans are made of), LDPE (shrink wrap), and polypropylene. You may also be able to recycle less common plastic types, especially if you have a large quantity of them, Gordon said.
- Cardboard and paper
- Metals
Next, you’ll want to find a broker who can buy your materials from you. If you decide to partner with Georgia-Pacific Recycling, for example, you’ll set up a free hubbIT account and put in some basic information, such as what types of materials you have and where the materials are located. The platform then gives you an estimate of your material’s value and helps you get the process started.
“You consider it waste, and I get that. You, as a facility manager, have a lot on your plate and you’re probably not thinking about how much your trash is worth,” Gordon said. “But I think about that every day, and people who do what I do, do too.”
Companies like Georgia-Pacific Recycling can also perform waste audits on your materials and bring in a baler to help you package them up for transport—potentially for free, depending on your volume of materials. “The first step is finding the right partner and getting started,” added Gordon. “A lot of people are saying, ‘I know there’s value in this material, but is it worth 50 cents or $5,000? I have no idea.’ That’s what we’re trying to quickly help people validate.”
One participant, a small produce company with three facilities, was paying $1,300 per facility to have its materials recycled, then discovered it could make up to $2,000 a month by filling a truck with recyclables. “We come pick it up and pay them for that,” Gordon said. “That’s a $3,300 per month swing on his P&L per facility.”
Facility managers don’t need a large sustainability team to optimize the process, Gordon said. You just need a waste audit and an entry into the world of brokering recyclables.
“You can still hit your ESG and landfill diversion goals and be good stewards of the environment, and it doesn’t have to cost you,” Gordon said. “Just take the first step. Find a partner that can help you understand this and get started. Start thinking of it as an opportunity and a value instead of a nuisance.”
