What counts as non-recoverable scrap?

Anything that leaves the plant instead of going back into a press: purge, contaminated or degraded parts, and runner you may not regrind. DuPont's nylon guide says discolored, splayed or brittle parts must be discarded, not reground.

Why weigh scrap instead of counting rejected parts?

Purge, startup shots and runners never appear in a reject count, but they all land on the scale. Weigh tickets give the whole loss by weight, the way you buy resin.

What scrap rate target should I set?

Start from your own trailing average or the customer's agreement rather than a generic benchmark. For scale, plants feeding scrap back through automated regrind systems have cut landfill to under 1% of material used.

Is it worth selling scrap if the recycler pays little?

Yes, if you keep it sorted by grade: scrap collected at the press is clean and of known type and grade, which makes it valuable. Enter the recycler's price; the recovered row shows the return.

Injection Molding calculator

Scrap Resin Cost Calculator

Price the resin your plant scraps each year, net of what the recycler pays, for a monthly scrap review or a hot runner business case. You need resin used, scrap weighed out, resin and scrap prices and your target.

What this calculator does

Yearly cost of resin you cannot regrind, net of scrap sales, and what hitting your scrap target is worth.

Formula used

Scrap rate = non-recoverable scrap ÷ virgin resin used
Annual scrap resin cost = scrap × (delivered resin price − scrap sale price)
Scrap above target = larger of 0 and (scrap − target rate × resin used)
Saving at target = scrap above target × (resin price − scrap sale price)

Inputs explained

Virgin Resin Used per Year: Resin issued to all presses, from inventory or purchasing records.
Non-Recoverable Scrap per Year: Scrap weigh tickets: purge, degraded parts, runner you cannot regrind.
Delivered Resin Price: Blended invoice price per kg, including freight.
Scrap Sale Price: Recycler's price per kg; 0 if it goes to landfill.
Scrap Rate Target: Plant or customer target, as a share of resin used.

How to use the result

Best suited to monthly scrap review against a plant target, hot runner or purge compound business case, comparing scrap cost between plants or cells.
Values the resin only; press time, labor and energy spent on scrapped shots are extra. Haul-away and landfill fees are not included.

Current U.S. benchmarks

The producer price index for plastic resins and materials stands at 280.569 (BLS, Aug 2026), up 6.6% from a year earlier. Quotes priced off last quarter's material cost miss this move.
The U.S. has 9,635 plastics product manufacturing establishments employing about 677,302 workers (Census County Business Patterns, 2023).

Common questions

What counts as non-recoverable scrap? Anything that leaves the plant instead of going back into a press: purge, contaminated or degraded parts, and runner you may not regrind. DuPont's nylon guide says discolored, splayed or brittle parts must be discarded, not reground.
Why weigh scrap instead of counting rejected parts? Purge, startup shots and runners never appear in a reject count, but they all land on the scale. Weigh tickets give the whole loss by weight, the way you buy resin.
What scrap rate target should I set? Start from your own trailing average or the customer's agreement rather than a generic benchmark. For scale, plants feeding scrap back through automated regrind systems have cut landfill to under 1% of material used.
Is it worth selling scrap if the recycler pays little? Yes, if you keep it sorted by grade: scrap collected at the press is clean and of known type and grade, which makes it valuable. Enter the recycler's price; the recovered row shows the return.

Last reviewed 2026-10-01.