Recycling cooperative

A recycling cooperative is an industrial cooperative, co-owned and maintained by either workers or consumers, which specializes in the recycling of various materials. Such cooperatives are either non-profit or not-for-profit; a major theoretical benefit of mass co-ownership is that raw recycled materials can become increasingly and equally distributed among the membership population at a low cost, be it for reusage at home or for reusage in the manufacturing of newer goods or versions of goods to be sold to customers at cheaper prices than would be possible with freshly obtained raw materials. A subset is the business recycling cooperative, which, according to the Northeast Recycling Council, is a group of business in a particular region, which separate recyclable waste, usually produced by their own functions, for prearranged collection by a shared hauler.

Examples

• Free Geek, a cooperative non-profit which recycles old computer parts and e-waste for re-usage in refurbished new computers which are sold preinstalled with free and open source software
• Headwaters Cooperative Recycling
• South Shore Recycling Cooperative
• Biofuel Recycling Cooperative
• Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative
• Central Recycling Cooperative
• Orange County Recycling Cooperative
• North Central West Virginia Recycling Cooperative
• Recycling Marketing Cooperative for Tennessee
• Magpie Recycling Co-operative
• Connecticut Agricultural Plastics Recycling Cooperative
• Environmental Co-op