I am thinking about making some soft plastics at some point. My question is, how valuable are the used soft plastics I'm throwing away now? In other words, how much money's worth is in each soft plastic? This is going to be compared to the expected pain in the butt for saving soft plastics for a few years before I get into it. If a few years will only amount to $10 worth of material, it may not be worth it vs the aggravation.

calculation

5 gallons of Plastisol will make about 2000 Senko size worms - so a smidge under $0.09 each

Colorant (Do It X2) 325-650 worms per bottle $0.02-$0.04 per worm

 So main cost is $0.11-$0.13 per worm.

 

Note that re-melting worms either gives you a 'muddy-brown' color if you mix them together, or you have to separate by color to prevent that. How much organization are you willing to go through to separate colors and collect enough to make a batch of a specific color from recycling?

It’s not worth it!

With fresh plastisol you control the end result, softness, color, flakes etc.

Tom

Thanks for yall's insight.

 

I guess I forgot to mention, that I use mostly Zoom, and mostly 3-4 colors. Lots of green pumpkin and lots of watermelon red, some junebug.

 

I'm leaning towards it kinda as something fun to do with my boy. Teach him the value of a dollar kind of think. But by the same token, I don't save cans, because after 10 years of savings I'll have $100, and it ain't worth the aggravation. So basically I'm at that stage with soft plastics.

I have been making soft plastics for probably longer than you have been alive.  I do not save used baits because it takes dozens to be worth a remelt.

I have a bucket full of used soft plastics.  Made a Plaster of Paris mold and poured my own in the 80's . I whittled the worm out of a piece of wood. It didnt come out as planned. I made some other molds that I think will work , just havent tried them. Heck, i dont even know where they are.

For some reason I save most of mine and remelt them. Remelts I usually only make into trailers or senkos become flukes. Figured why waste the baits that will just end up in the landfill. Don't melt down Zman or Berkeley plastics. Other baits are fine as I remember Zoom and Yamamoto all the time 

 

 

Allen 

I save mine, I just chuck them in and outside packet on my tackle bag. I pick up a yard sale microwave ( don’t use your house one) and an Anchor or Pyrex measuring cup. Heat in small increments until pourable.

Got a few open pour molds a buddy gave me, it’s fun. They do turn a funny color, but a little glitter, and I come out with a very unique curly tailed. 
I don’t think I’ve ever caught anything on them haha.

You could make your own dice baits…

I tend to save em. Occasionally I will just use a few recycled baits to just color the batch.

I try and not mix the non-floating stuff with "float" plastisol.