Circular Economy, Recycling & Remanufacturing worked example

Recovered Material Margin at 91% saleable recovered-material quality share: a worked example

Push saleable recovered-material quality share up to 91% and the picture changes. This example computes every intermediate figure at that operating point. a team needs to choose whether to upgrade, sell, blend, or divert recovered material streams for a material grade, shipment, or monthly recovery run

The inputs for this scenario

  • Recovered material prepared for sale: 22,000 kg (unchanged)
  • Margin per saleable recovered kg: 0.42 $ / kg (unchanged)
  • Saleable recovered-material quality share: 91 % (raised for this scenario; the documented default is 79)
  • Fixed sorting, baling, certification, or broker cost to subtract: 2,600 $ (unchanged)

Working through the calculation

  • Applying the documented formula (Gross recovered-material margin = recovered material prepared for sale × margin per saleable recovered kg × saleable recovered-material quality share) to the inputs above produces each figure below.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 11,008 net recovered material margin for net recovered material margin, the number this scenario is built around.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 0.5 $ / piece for margin per kg recovered.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 8,408 $ for gross recovered-material margin.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 2,600 $ for fixed sorting, baling, certification, or broker cost to subtract.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where saleable recovered-material quality share sits at 79% and the headline result is 9,900 net recovered material margin, this scenario comes in 11.2% above the baseline at 11,008 net recovered material margin.
  • It computes gross margin as recovered weight times per-kg margin times the saleable quality share, then nets out fixed processing costs to give a net recovered material margin. The value of this scenario is the size of the gap it exposes: that gap, priced out over a year, is the budget you can justify spending to close it.

Results at a glance

  • Net recovered material margin: 11,008 net recovered material margin (headline result)
  • Margin per kg recovered: 0.5 $ / piece
  • Gross recovered-material margin: 8,408 $
  • Fixed sorting, baling, certification, or broker cost to subtract: 2,600 $

Run it with your numbers

  • Every input above is editable in the live Recovered Material Margin calculator, which recalculates instantly and can be shared with the inputs intact.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.