To get their prints, consumers must take the single-use cameras to a photofinisher. This necessary step provides a natural collection points for the cameras, and became a focal point for our efforts to get the camera bodies returned to Kodak. By leveraging our excellent customer relationships with photofinishers around the world, we established a variety of marketing and promotional programs to get the camera shells back to the company once the customer's film had been removed. For a Kodak single-use camera, the time from collection to reclamation to the store shelf can be as short as 30 days. Let's take a look at what happens to single-use cameras during the recycling process.
Cameras arrive in recyclable cardboard boxes and are first sorted according to manufacturer.
Industry-level exchange partnerships have been established by Kodak with Fuji, Konica, and other SUC manufacturers. Through these partnerships, we accept competitors' cameras, they accept ours, and we exchange them. Kodak cameras, which make up the great majority, are further sorted by camera model . Second, the Kodak cameras are then shipped to a subcontractor facility for processing. There, all packaging is removed along with the front and back covers and the batteries, if any.