Coin Recovery Revolution: How Reworld is Saving Millions from Waste

The phrase, “throwing away money” is uttered every day, especially in my house as my fiancé comments on my purchasing habits when it comes to collectibles that I am a sucker for. While that money isn’t literally being “thrown away” when I buy something, other citizens across the United States seem to be doing just that, based on how much money is being recovered from facilities. Thankfully, Reworld™ is stepping in to recover coins and ensure that they don’t go to waste.

Reworld™, formerly known as Covanta, has partnered with many different businesses and communities to maximize the possibilities of waste and turn it into new resources. As a leading sustainable waste solutions company, its approach is designed to go beyond net zero waste management approaches to achieve carbon-negative outcomes. In 2017, Reworld™ started its coin sorting process as an offshoot of its non-ferrous metal recovery operation, looking for materials such as aluminum, copper, brass, zinc, and tin from its Thermomechanical Treatment Facilities (TTFs). Turns out, people are throwing away a lot more coins than I expected.

To learn more about this coin sorting and recovery process, I followed up with Abdurrahman Khalidi, Chief Technology Officer at Reworld™. Khalidi first served as the company’s SVP of the Metals team before moving into the CTO position. Through a series of questions and my shock after learning how much money is being collected, Khalidi and I can confirm to everyone that yes, people are literally throwing money away.

According to Khalidi, on average, Reworld™ is recovering up to $1 million worth of coins each year that can be effectively recirculated. In addition, roughly another $2 million worth of coins recovered are mutilated and unfit to be integrated back into circulation. After the coins are recovered, they are sent to a third-party processor that gets them back into the U.S. banking system.

“Despite the rise in contactless payment methods, the volume of coins we receive has remained steady, which has been surprising,” said Khalidi.

Khalidi tells me that the coins come to Reworld™ from nearly 40 TTFs across North America, where the coins go through machine sorting processes including non-ferrous recovery systems, x-ray, and color sorting. From there, final sorting is done by hand to separate good coins from mutilated coins. Khalidi mentions that hand sorting has led to a collection of valuable coins such as Buffalo Nickels, which the company apparently has jars full of thanks to the recovery process.

As of now, there is no AI integrated into the coin recovery process but that could be something Reworld™ uses in the future, according to Khalidi.

The outstanding challenge for Reworld™ and the coin recovery process is dealing with mutilated and damaged coins. The damaged coins, according to Khalidi, have been redeemed with the U.S. Mint for face value. Reworld™ currently has roughly 350 tons of damaged coins securely tucked away in offsite storage.

“It’s almost impossible to prevent damage to every single coin, but we do our very best to salvage currency,” said Khalidi.

Of course, one issue can’t exist without raising an issue somewhere else as the U.S. Mint has suspended the redemption program citing concerns about internal resource challenges and counterfeit coins coming from overseas.

“To our knowledge, there is no evidence of significant amounts of counterfeit coins being submitted for redemption – the coins we collect mostly come from household waste,” said Khalidi.

“At the same time, the Federal Reserve has published a report about the lack of coins in the market. We look forward to working with these agencies to allow them to keep up with the demand for coins.”

The coin recovery process is just one small highlight of the company’s bigger commitment to turning refuse into resources and is an excellent example of the value that Reworld™ can recover from waste streams. While the coin recovery is a nice addition to the Reworld™ metal processing function, the company is working to lead the industry in taking overlooked assets and finding the economic value in materials through its intricate sorting process.

“Reworld™ recycles over 500,000 tons of metals annually, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions and the energy required to create virgin metals from raw ores. This comprehensive recycling effort not only generates economic value but also plays a critical role in decarbonizing the metals industry,” said Khalidi.

“We recover enough steel to build five Golden Gate Bridges and enough aluminum to build over 200,000 cars per year.”