The growing need to manage businesses more competitively and more profitably is opening up new opportunities for research in industrial engineering. One of these research and practical opportunities is the development of cost and productivity theory for a recycling plant. Recycling technology has evolved as one of the most useful facilities that help us to maintain an environmentally friendly society. The world over, the need of recycling is heightened by the increasing awareness of product consumer, on the need to maximize the bundle of benefits from the products bought by them. This paper attempts a mathematical model for the solid waste-recycling problem. The focus is on development of a framework that incorporates flow rate, cost and productivity into a holistic theory.