Where recycled reels go

The short version

A reel that reaches us goes one of four ways. Sound one-way reels go back into use as reels. Reels that are past carrying cable but still solid can become tables, planters and workshop stands. Broken wood is separated from its metal and goes to wood recycling. Steel parts go to scrap metal. Returnable reels never enter this chain at all; they go back to the cable maker that owns them.

Reuse as a reel

Reuse is the best outcome and the first one we look for. A nailed wood reel that has carried cable once can carry it again if its flanges are flat, its staves are tight and its arbor hole is round. Contractors who cut cable to length from bulk, companies that rewind and resell cable, and shops that store their own wire on reels all want sound empties. Cable makers also refurbish reels: Sonoco's EcoReel programme, for instance, describes collecting viable used wood and polyfiber reels, repairing and refurbishing them, and putting them back into circulation. Sorting reels by size and condition is what makes reuse possible, which is why we sort every load.

Reuse as something else

Reels that are sound but no longer suitable for cable, such as a reel with a slightly worn arbor hole or a weathered flange face, often still make a good table, a garden planter base, a display stand for a shop, or a workbench. Makers and furniture builders in Philadelphia ask for 24- to 48-inch reels for exactly that. See spools for tables for what they look for.

Wood recycling

Broken reels are taken apart. The boards from the flanges and the staves from the drum are separated from the nails, bolts and tie rods. Clean wood can then be:

• chipped for landscape mulch or animal bedding, where the wood has not been treated or painted;
• chipped for fuel at plants that burn biomass;
• sorted for timber recovery when long, sound boards can be reused for blocking, crates or small woodworking.

Wood that has been painted, treated with preservative or contaminated with oil cannot go to mulch, and is kept apart. Some cable reels are built from wood treated against insects for export shipping and marked with a heat-treatment stamp; heat treatment does not add chemicals, but a chemical treatment would, and the two are kept separate.

Metal recycling

A heavy reel carries a surprising amount of steel: tie rods running flange to flange, nuts and washers, an arbor plate, and hundreds of nails. Those parts are collected and sent for scrap steel. Steel reels themselves, when they are not returnable and are beyond repair, are scrap metal too, but most steel reels belong to their makers and go back to them.

Plywood and fibreboard

Small plywood spools are plywood discs glued and pinned to a fibreboard tube. The plywood can be chipped with other wood when it is untreated. The fibreboard tube is a paper product; when it is clean and dry it can go with paper and cardboard, and when it is wet or oily it goes with general waste.

Plastic spools

Plastic spools are moulded from various plastics. Where the type is marked and a recycler accepts it, they are recycled as plastic. Unmarked or mixed plastics have fewer outlets, which is one reason plastic spools rarely make money for anyone. Clean, uncracked plastic spools are occasionally wanted for reuse by shops that wind small wire.

Returnables

Steel reels, and wooden reels stencilled with a cable maker's name or carrying a deposit tag, are the maker's property. Southwire, for example, describes its steel reels as returnable and charged, with credit when they come back within 12 months. We never recycle or sell those. We tell you the maker and point you to their return programme.

What does not happen

Reels we collect do not go to landfill as whole reels, and they are not burnt in the open. If a load turns out to contain something that cannot be recycled, such as heavily contaminated wood, we say so and handle it as waste rather than mixing it into the recycling streams.

Why sorting matters to the outcome

Every step after pickup depends on the first sort. A good reel loaded in with broken wood is likely to end up chipped. A returnable reel mixed into a yard pile can be scrapped by mistake, and its maker loses an asset it was counting on getting back. A load sorted on the yard, by size and condition and ownership, sends each reel down the right path. That is why the driver looks at every reel as it is loaded and why the reply to your request is grouped the way it is.

Distances and local processors

Wood and steel recyclers operate across the region, so material travels short distances from pickup to processing.

Weigh tickets and tipping fees

Recyclers weigh incoming loads at a scale house and charge or pay per ton. Clean, sorted wood and steel cost less to process than mixed debris, which is one reason we separate hardware from timber before delivery. Those tickets also give contractors the tonnage numbers they need for diversion reports.

Nothing burned on site

We never torch reels in yards.

Questions

Can I get a record of how my reels were recycled?

Yes. Ask in the request. We can give a count by outcome: reused, recycled as wood, recycled as metal, and returnables passed to their makers.

Do you sell the mulch or wood chips?

No. Broken reel wood goes to wood recyclers, not to retail sale.

Are reel boards safe for garden beds?

Untreated reel wood is plain lumber. Avoid boards with paint, preservatives or oil stains, and check for nails.