On this page
What the number actually means
That triangle is a Resin Identification Code. It was introduced by the plastics industry so that sorters could tell one polymer from another, and it does exactly that job and nothing more. It is not a promise that the item will be recycled, and it is not a quality rating. A 1 is not better than a 5.
This matters commercially because polymers cannot be melted together. Mix PP into a batch of PET and you do not get a slightly worse PET — you get a batch that the reprocessor rejects. That is the entire reason a sorted load is worth more than a mixed one, and it is why we grade so carefully at intake.
The seven codes, one by one
1 — PET or PETE (Polyethylene terephthalate)
Clear drink bottles, oil bottles, polyester fibre. This is the most tradeable plastic scrap in India. There is established reprocessing capacity, most of it feeding polyester fibre production, and demand is consistent.
Clear, uncoloured, label-free bottle scrap sits at the top. Coloured PET is worth noticeably less because it can only go into darker output. Baled PET is worth more than loose PET simply because transport is the dominant cost in moving something that light.
2 — HDPE (High-density polyethylene)
Milk crates, drums, jerry cans, pipe, bottle caps, thicker carry bags. A strong, reliable market. Rigid HDPE in a single colour — a stack of the same blue crates — is genuinely good material. Natural (uncoloured, milky) HDPE is the premium grade.
The usual problem with HDPE is what was in the container. A drum that held food is fine. A drum that held chemicals, pesticide or oil is a different conversation, and in some cases we cannot take it at all.
3 — PVC (Polyvinyl chloride)
Pipes, cable insulation, flooring, hoses. Low value, and the one grade that actively damages other streams. PVC contains chlorine; when it goes through a hot extruder mixed into PE or PP it releases acidic gas that corrodes machinery and ruins the batch.
Reprocessors are consequently very intolerant of PVC contamination. A few PVC pipe offcuts hidden in an otherwise clean load of rigid plastic can drop the price of the whole lot. Keep it separate.
4 — LDPE and LLDPE (Low-density polyethylene)
Film: shrink wrap, pallet wrap, liners, carry bags, greenhouse sheet. The value spread within this single code is enormous.
Clean, clear, unprinted stretch film off a warehouse floor is a decent grade with steady buyers. Heavily printed film is worth substantially less because the ink carries through into the output. Film that has been outdoors for a season, or has soil, tape or moisture in it, may be worth very little. Film is also bulky, so unbaled quantities lose a lot of their value to transport.
5 — PP (Polypropylene)
Woven sacks, plastic furniture, crates, automotive trim, caps, food containers, BOPP. In India this is a large and active market, in no small part because of woven sacks — cement, fertiliser, rice, cattle feed all move in PP sacks, and those sacks have a real second life.
Rigid PP in a consistent colour is good material. Woven sack scrap is priced separately and is very sensitive to how much dirt and residue is still in it. Sacks that held cement are worth much less than sacks that held grain, for exactly the reason you would expect.
6 — PS (Polystyrene)
Disposable cutlery, yoghurt pots, CD cases, and the expanded form — EPS, thermocol — used in packaging.
Rigid PS has a thin but real market. EPS is a genuine problem: it is about 98 per cent air, so a truckload weighs almost nothing while costing a full truckload to move. It only makes commercial sense if it is densified or compacted first. If you generate EPS in volume, a compactor changes the economics completely; without one, most dealers will decline it.
7 — Other
Everything else, and the most misunderstood category. Code 7 covers two very different kinds of material.
Engineering plastics — ABS, polycarbonate, nylon, acrylic, POM. These are often the most valuable plastics in a mixed load. Clean ABS regrind from appliance housings, or nylon from industrial components, can be worth several times the rate of PET. If you are scrapping electronics housings or machine parts and treating them as "assorted 7", you are almost certainly underselling them.
Multilayer laminates — snack packets, pouches, sachets. A sandwich of plastic, adhesive and often aluminium foil, which cannot practicably be separated back into its layers. There is very little market for this, and no field treatment that improves it.
The single most useful takeaway: code 7 is not a low-value bin. Pull the ABS, polycarbonate and nylon out of it and sell those separately.
Identifying plastic with no marking
Industrial offcuts, machine parts and film usually carry no code at all. Two safe tests will get you most of the way.
The water test
Drop a clean piece in a bucket of water. Polymer densities differ enough that flotation splits them into two useful groups:
| Result | Likely polymer | Approx. density (g/cm³) |
|---|---|---|
| Floats | PP | 0.90 – 0.91 |
| Floats | LDPE | 0.91 – 0.93 |
| Floats, only just | HDPE | 0.94 – 0.97 |
| Sinks | PS | 1.04 – 1.07 |
| Sinks | PET | 1.38 – 1.39 |
| Sinks fast | PVC | 1.38 – 1.45 |
Make sure the piece is solid, not foamed, and that no air is trapped in it — a bottle with the cap on floats regardless of what it is made of. This single test separates the polyolefins (PP, PE) from everything else, which is the split that matters most at intake.
Feel, sound and appearance
- PP has a slightly waxy feel and a living hinge that survives repeated bending — the flip-top on a shampoo bottle is the classic example.
- HDPE is stiffer and sounds duller when tapped; it scratches white.
- PET is glass-clear, rings when tapped, and creases with a distinct white stress mark.
- PVC is rigid and dense, and pipe is usually clearly marked.
- ABS looks matte, feels hard and dense, and is common in appliance and equipment housings.
A word on the burn test. Older dealers identify polymers by flame colour and smell. It works, but burning PVC releases hydrogen chloride, and burning unknown plastic can release a good deal worse. We do not recommend it, and we do not use it. The water test is free, safe and tells you most of what you need.
Why the code is a poor guide to value
Two loads of code 2 HDPE can differ in price by a factor of three. What actually drives the number is:
- Purity. One polymer, or several mixed together.
- Colour consistency. Natural beats single-colour beats mixed. Recycled plastic can be dyed darker, never lighter.
- Contamination. Labels, adhesive, metal inserts, soil, moisture, product residue. Every one of these has to be removed before reprocessing, and that cost comes out of your rate.
- Form and density. Baled beats loose. Regrind beats whole items. Anything that lets more weight fit on a truck is worth more per kilo.
- Quantity. A tonne moves at a better rate than fifty kilos, because the cost of sending a vehicle is much the same either way.
We go through this arithmetic properly in how scrap dealers actually arrive at a price.
Four things that raise your rate
- Separate at source, not later. Two bins at the machine cost nothing. Sorting a mixed heap afterwards costs labour, and we price that labour into what we pay you.
- Keep it dry and indoors. Water adds weight you will not be paid for and invites the assumption of contamination. Film left in the rain loses value quickly.
- Pull the PVC out. The one contaminant that punishes a whole load.
- Sell engineering plastics separately. ABS, nylon and polycarbonate should never sit in a general plastic bin.
Not sure what you have?
Send us photographs of the material as it is stored, with a rough weight and your town. We will tell you what it is and what it is worth. We buy across Thiruvallur, Kadambathur, Thiruninravur, Avadi, Poonamallee and the surrounding towns.