Recycling old cabling?

Tue Aug 17 17:09:53 UTC 2010

> Just out of curiosity, is anyone here recycling old cabling and plant
> infrastructure for their raw materials, or engaging a recycler to handle
> those materials?

There are places that will pay for and recycle old telecom wire.  About 11
years ago I did some consulting work for a company that did just that,
usually buying old wire by the railroad car-load and shipping it to a
plant where it was chopped into little bits.  The little bits then went
through a vibrating process, where metal went one way, insulation another.
Then the metal bits got sold via comex.

An article I found
<http://www.recyclingtoday.com/Article.aspx?article_id=19750> mentioned
that the front-end process was the toughest for the recyclers.  I imagine,
as an operator, the best path would be to call around to various scrap
metal dealers and ask if one of these wire recyclers is in the area.

I have no idea about the feasibility of fiber recycling.

~JasonG