Rochester Silver Works

What Rochester Silver Works does

Rochester Silver Works, LLC (RSW) is a privately held, vertically integrated precious-metals recycler and silver chemical manufacturer headquartered in Rochester, New York, on a 10-acre site within the Eastman Business Park. The company was established in 2011 when Eastman Kodak's Silver Recovery Department was spun off as an independent LLC, with all 55 incumbent employees retained, giving RSW roughly 90 years of inherited operating know-how in silver recovery. RSW serves four overlapping customer segments: film and photographic material providers (medical/dental x-rays, lithographic and industrial films, motion picture cinema, microfilm, and PET/CTA-based materials), silver and gold scrap suppliers (photoprocessors, jewelry manufacturers, and consolidators of silver-bearing sludges, solutions, and finished goods), silver chemical buyers sourcing silver nitrate and silver oxide for photographic, medical, solar, anti-microbial, and electrical-contact applications, and plastics manufacturers purchasing recycled PET and CTA flake.

Name

Rochester Silver Works

Legal name

Rochester Silver Works, LLC

Website

https://www.rochestersilverworks.com/

Company type

Private

Founded year

2011

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Rochester Silver Works is a Rochester, NY-based vertically integrated precious-metals recycler that recovers silver from photographic film and industrial scrap, refining it to over 99.99% purity and converting it into silver nitrate, silver oxide, and recycled PET flake for industrial buyers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Precious Metals Recycling & Refining

NAICS

Secondary Smelting, Refining, and Alloying of Nonferrous Metal (except Copper and Aluminum) (331492)

SIC

Secondary Smelting & Refining Of Nonferrous Metals (3341)

akta.pro primary industry

Metals Recycling & Processing (Ferrous/Non-Ferrous) (BPALADAF)

akta.pro secondary industry

Industrial & Manufacturing Scrap Recycling (Factory Scrap, Turnings, Offcuts) (IMAKAMAE)

Keywords

• Precious metal recycling
• Silver refining services
• Silver nitrate manufacturing
• Photographic film recycling
• Recycled PET flake

Headquarters

HQ city

Rochester

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Operations, Personnel, Supply Chain, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Film Recycling Services: RSW accepts silver-coated PET plastic, photographic films, and medical/industrial x-rays. Pricing includes wash fee, refining fee, accountability charges, and credit for plastic value (PET). Providers receive reclaimed value from their film materials while RSW retains silver for further refining.
2. Silver and Gold Refining Services: Refines silver from recycling operations and accepts silver-bearing materials from photoprocessors, jewelry manufacturers, and other silver processors. Silver output refined to greater than 99.99% pure. Customers receive returns in cash, pool, or as pure metal. RSW also accepts silver/gold mixed streams. Processes sludges, aqueous solutions, manufacturing process wastes, silver bars, flake, shot, powder, recycled silver coins, and ash.
3. Silver Nitrate Manufacturing and Sales: RSW produces high quality silver nitrate in commercial volumes up to 4 million kg annually. Key raw material for traditional photographic films, medical products, solar panels, electrical contacts, anti-microbial products, and mirrors. Available in solid or liquid form with various packaging options from over 1,000 kg to less than 10 kg.
4. Silver Oxide Manufacturing and Sales: Produces high quality silver oxide and silver derivatives including silver carbonate. Materials generated from high purity stock ensuring consistency and reliability. Packaging scaled from over 1,000 kg to less than 10 kg.
5. Recycled Polyester Film (PET) Sales: RSW produces recycled PET flake and CTA flake for reuse. Clear and/or colored PET flake continues to be the benchmark of recycled quality in the plastic recycling industry. Sold based on market pricing for use in resins for containers, commercial plastics, molded parts, carpets and other fibers.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Rochester Silver Works accepts silver-bearing scrap materials (photographic films, medical and industrial x-rays, sludges, solutions, and precious metal-bearing wastes) from industrial suppliers and refines them into >99.99% pure silver, silver nitrate, silver oxide, and benchmark-quality recycled PET/CTA flake. The company operates film recycling, silver refining, and lab/assay services backed by a 10-acre manufacturing facility in Rochester, New York.

Product overview

Rochester Silver Works (RSW) operates as a vertically integrated precious metals recycling and silver chemical manufacturing company, originally the Silver Recovery Department of Eastman Kodak Company. The company offers a unified portfolio centered on three core products: Silver Nitrate (produced at up to 4M kg annually for photographic, medical, solar, and anti-microbial applications), Silver Oxide (high purity with >99.8% assay for industrial uses), and Polyester Film (recycled PET and CTA flake at 20-25 million pounds per year). These products are generated through three interconnected services: Film Recycling (converting silver-coated plastic to reusable materials), Silver Refining (smelting and purification to >99.99% purity at 15+ million troy ounces annually), and Lab/Assay services (quality verification using fire assay and ICP technologies). The company leverages over 90 years of Eastman Kodak heritage expertise in film recycling and silver recovery.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Silver Nitrate High-purity silver nitrate produced from greater than 99.99% pure silver and tower-grade nitric acid in commercial volumes up to 4 million kg annually, used as a key raw material for traditional photographic films, medical products, solar panels, electrical contacts, anti-microbial products, and mirrors. Available in solid or liquid form with packaging scaled from over 1,000 kg down to less than 10 kg for industrial chemical buyers.
• Silver Oxide High-quality silver oxide (Ag2O) with greater than 99.8% assay and related silver derivatives including silver carbonate, generated from the same high-purity stock to ensure consistency and reliability. Available in packaging scaled from over 1,000 kg down to less than 10 kg for industrial buyers requiring chemical-grade silver oxide.
• Recycled Polyester Film (PET Flake) Recycled polyester film in two major flake forms: clear or blue colored PET (polyethylene terephthalate) flake and CTA (cellulose triacetate) flake. Produced at approximately 20-25 million pounds per year, the recycled PET typically contains less than 50 ppm residual silver and is sold as a raw material input for resins used in containers, commercial plastics, molded parts, carpets, and other fibers.
• Film Recycling Services Recycling service for silver-coated PET plastic, photographic films, and medical/industrial x-rays offered to medical and dental x-ray providers, lithographic film producers, industrial film users, and motion picture film holders. RSW removes silver and coated materials through its industry-leading film wash process and produces reusable PET/CTA flake, with customized terms based on material type, quantity, and quality. NAID-compliant sorting and shucking with certified destruction of paper and film is offered for medical records.
• Silver Refining Services Refining service that processes silver-bearing materials from photoprocessors, jewelry manufacturers, refiners, and consolidators of precious metals. Uses a nine-foot diameter smelter capable of generating nearly 350,000 troy ounces of silver in a single process and water treatment handling up to one million gallons of silver-rich water per day, with annual capacity over 15 million troy ounces. Accepts sludges, solids, filter cakes, aqueous solutions, manufacturing process wastes, silver bar/flake/shot/powder, dore, silver crystals, and silver/gold mixed streams, refining silver to greater than 99.99% purity with flexible settlement in cash, pool, or pure metal.
• Lab and Assay Services Laboratory analysis service using Corrected Fire Assay, ICP, and other analytical technologies with staff holding undergraduate through graduate-level technical degrees. Helps clients determine the value of their silver-bearing materials in advance or at spot, and supports quality verification for inbound scrap and outbound refined products.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 95% of plastic and 99.9% of silver bearing materials received are re-worked and re-used as raw materials
• +3 more outcomes

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered minor.

• International Precious Metals Institute (IPMI)minorOthersIPMI is the largest and most well-known association focused on precious metals in the world. It is an international association of producers, refiners, fabricators, scientists, users, financial institutions, merchants, private and public sector groups, and the general precious metals community formed to provide a forum for the exchange of information and technology. IPMI seeks and promotes the efficient and environmentally sound use, reuse, and recycling of precious metals.
• NAID (National Association of Information Destruction)minorOthersNAID is the international trade association for companies providing information destruction services. RSW is a member and offers NAID-compliant sorting and shucking services for medical records with certified destruction of paper and film.
• The Silver Users AssociationminorOthersA non-profit organization established in 1947 to represent the interests of companies that make, sell and distribute products and services in which silver is an essential component.

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves6 records

Direct peers

• Materion Corporation: US-based publicly traded advanced materials company with a large precious metals refining segment that produces silver, gold and platinum-group products and silver-based chemicals. Closest direct comparable to RSW in terms of secondary refining of silver from industrial scrap and downstream silver chemical production.
• Sabin Metal Corporation: Private US-based secondary precious metals refiner recovering gold, silver, platinum and palladium from industrial scrap and byproducts. Comparable to RSW as a privately held, secondary-focused nonferrous refiner serving industrial scrap suppliers.
• Metalor Technologies: Switzerland-headquartered global precious metals refiner producing silver and gold products and silver salts/nitrates for industrial customers. Closely comparable to RSW's silver refining and silver nitrate/oxide manufacturing activities, with much greater international scale.
• Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo (Tanaka Precious Metals): Japan-based precious metals refiner and manufacturer of silver, gold and platinum-group products including silver compounds. Comparable to RSW in the integrated secondary refining-to-chemicals model, with additional strengths in electronics and semiconductor materials.
• Dowa Holdings: Japan-based nonferrous metals smelter and recycler with significant silver, copper and precious-metals recovery operations and downstream materials production. Comparable to RSW in nonferrous secondary smelting/refining and the production of silver-bearing industrial materials.
• Kanto-PPC (Kanto Denka Kogyo): Japan-based manufacturer of high-purity silver nitrate and other silver chemicals used in photographic, electronic and industrial applications. Closely comparable to RSW's silver nitrate and silver oxide production, particularly for photographic and industrial end markets.

Broad incumbents

• Heraeus Precious Metals: German-headquartered global precious metals group offering refining, trading, and industrial silver/gold products across multiple industries. Comparable to RSW's refining and silver-chemical business, but at vastly greater scale and geographic breadth.
• Johnson Matthey: UK-listed global precious metals and catalysts company with refining, fabrication, and silver chemical product lines. Comparable to RSW's silver refining and downstream chemical activities, though Johnson Matthey serves a far broader end-market portfolio.
• Umicore: Belgian materials technology and recycling group with a major precious metals refining and recycling business producing silver, gold and PGMs. Comparable to RSW in nonferrous precious metals refining from scrap, with significantly larger global recycling footprint.

Others

• FUJIFILM Holdings: Global photographic and imaging company with internal silver recovery from film manufacturing and a portfolio of silver-bearing film products. Comparable to RSW only at the level of silver-bearing film supply and silver recovery know-how — not a direct refining competitor.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/rochester-silver-works-llc/posts/?feedView=all

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Rochester Silver Works