Municipal Waste Sorting Equipment worked example

Project Margin with mrf project revenue or recovered-material value of 625,000 $: a worked example in municipal waste sorting equipment

This worked example runs the project margin numbers for a tougher week than the baseline: mrf project revenue or recovered-material value of 625,000 $ instead of the typical 1,250,000 $. Estimate the margin between project revenue and required cost for a new MRF line, upgrade, or contract processing deal.

The inputs for this scenario

  • MRF project revenue or recovered-material value: 625,000 $ (the input this scenario stresses; the baseline uses 1,250,000)
  • Total installed project cost: 1,000,000 $ (held at the documented default)
  • Reference contract revenue for margin base: 1,250,000 $ (held at the documented default)

Working through the calculation

  • The calculation starts from the formula this tool documents: Project margin amount = project revenue - required project cost.
  • Project margin works out to -30 % at these inputs, and this is the headline figure for the scenario.
  • Project margin amount works out to -375,000 value at these inputs.
  • Project revenue works out to 625,000 value at these inputs.
  • Required project cost works out to 1,000,000 value at these inputs.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where mrf project revenue or recovered-material value sits at 1,250,000 $ and the headline result is 20 %, this scenario comes in 250% below the baseline at -30 %.
  • Use it at the quoting and bid-review stage for a MRF build, retrofit, or optical-sorter upgrade before you commit crews and steel. A result at this level usually justifies acting on the stressed input before touching anything else, because every other figure in the table is downstream of it.

Results at a glance

  • Project margin: -30 % (headline result)
  • Project margin amount: -375,000 value
  • Project revenue: 625,000 value
  • Required project cost: 1,000,000 value

Run it with your numbers

  • To rerun this with your own numbers, open the live Project Margin calculator, set mrf project revenue or recovered-material value to your actual value, and adjust the remaining inputs to match your operation.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.