PC (polycarbonate)

Polycarbonate is the transparent engineering polymer of safety glazing, water-cooler bottles, automotive lighting and electronic housings — exceptional impact strength and heat resistance at the price of scratch sensitivity. As scrap it is a genuinely valuable engineering stream when identity is certain: glazing offcuts, CD/DVD production waste (historically), water bottles and lighting parts.

The trade's central caution is blends and coatings: PC/ABS looks like PC, and hard-coated glazing behaves differently in reprocessing — both must be declared. Optical-grade offcuts fetch the top of the range. Key parameters: source, transparency, coating, yellowness index for clear grades. Regrind moves under HS 3915.90; primary forms under 3907.40. Recycled PC returns to non-optical injection applications and PC/ABS compounds for electronics and automotive.