Abstract: A method and mechanical device for recycling thermoplastic scrap that collects the hot excess waste material that is trimmed off the edges of phonograph records immediately after they are pressed in a hydraulic record press. There is provided a tapered vertical shaft, widening at the bottom, which is secured to the base of a grinder. After a phonograph record is pressed flat, the hot excess thermoplastic scrap which extrudes from the edges is trimmed and allowed to drop into the upper opening of the shaft in the form of thirty inch strips. A motor or other means for blowing cold air is attached to an opening in the side of the shaft. The falling hot thermoplastic scrap is allowed to fall onto a horizontal platform surface located approximately twenty inches below the top of the shaft, where it is held and cooled by the blower for approximately twenty-six seconds, corresponding with the time it takes to press a record flat and trim the flash.