Recycling in boat building shop

I would like to discuss what other composite builders are doing to minimize waste, recycle cut offs, etc.

My current quest is to find out how people are handling 5 gal metal pails that acetone or denatured alcohol are coming in. We are wanting to cut the tops out and use them to mix resin for polyester infusion but not sure what tool to use to get a good clean edge. The local grocery store does not have a can opener large enough to do the job.

What are others doing with large vacuum bags when they reach end of use?

What about large flanges of glass trimmed from flanges needed during infusion?

55 gal empty resin drums? Can they be sent back to supplier to be cleaned and used again?

I know that the company we buy our floatation foam from will take our scraps, grind and use them in new foam billets.

Thanks

Sam

 

Very good and relevant question.

Steel packaging: metal cans can be recycled. The local scrapyard will take them.
PE packaging: Cut them open, stash them full of other plastic garbage, then put them aside. At least here they take plastic garbage for recycling.
Drums: Some companies clean them and recycle them. Here acetone, styrene and butyldiglycolether comes in returnable barrels.
IBC;s have a return system. If they do not accept a IBC, then remove the liner, cut that in pieces and discard, and use the cage for whatever you like. Trained farmes make cattle feeders out of them, using part of the liner, and the full cage.

Now for the difficult part:

-vacuumfilm and consumables: very hard to recycle.
-cutouts and cutoffs. Technology exists to grind them into a usable filler for polyester concrete, but as any other filler is cheaper...

Composites make for a lot of waste, I am afraid.