Transportation costs may discourage some exchanges. However, regional and national exchanges can be successful, particularly with special waste. Their common objective is to bring generators of unwanted materials and equipment together with potential users. Few make a profit. Modest fees for exchange services are usually charged to offset costs of operations.
Some exchanges make the information available as an on-line database.
A few exchanges, however, actively seek to make matches. Resource exchanges do not usually enter into negotiations to establish the logistics and financial arrangements for exchanges. Generators and users do this by themselves. Generally, companies accepting resources provide the transportation. They sometimes pay something for the resource.