Mannequin proves Brits are no dummies when it comes to recycling

A clothing-store mannequin and an award-winning recyclables bin, both made from UK-sourced household plastic packaging waste, served to highlight progress made by British firms in recycling challenging materials at an international conference on plastic waste recovery.

At Identiplast 2013, Will Hayes, Director of Green Warehouse, impressed delegates to win the EPRO Best Recycled Product 2013 with his uBin, a recyclables container using 100 percent recycled polypropylene plastic, derived from pots, tubs and trays. You can read more about the uBin here.

Hayes admitted his project was “not all plain sailing”, saying: “It was difficult because we needed a specific polymer blend with exacting properties to make the uBin and it took us a long time to find a suitable supply.

“While many people at the conference were drawing attention to the UK being one of the worst plastics recyclers in Europe, we were proud to ‘fly the flag’ with our achievements. Winning the EPRO award carries much prestige within the global plastics industry. But of course, the UK as a nation still has a long way to go in terms of developing its recycling habits,” he added.

Containing 50 percent recycled post-consumer flexible films, the plastic male torso also demonstrated at the conference was produced during a project co-ordinated by Axion Polymers as part of an on-going research project and trials funded by WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) to find new end applications for these types of materials. Recycled polyethylene was prepared for use in a UK roto-moulding process to demonstrate an example of converting plastic waste back into useful, high-quality products – in this case as a shop window clothes dummy.

Speaking after the Paris event, Axion Director, Keith Freegard, defended the UK’s relatively poor performance in recycling plastics packaging compared to other central European countries, citing both items as examples of British success in producing “amazing transformations” from supposedly difficult waste materials.

“While it’s true we’re lagging behind places like Germany and Scandinavia, most of their pots, tubs and trays and flexible films are diverted to energy from waste incineration schemes; which are not seen to be the desirable route in the UK as these non-renewable raw materials are then lost forever,” said Freegard.

“With investment in new recycling technologies happening here and our infrastructure developing to handle more complex plastic packaging waste, the mannequin and uBin are two excellent examples that demonstrate our emerging successes and are helping to improve our credentials,” he added.

Gareth Hollinshead, Key Account Manager on Plastics at WRAP, said: “These products are great examples of what can be manufactured with recycled plastic packaging from households.

“It shows that the UK is innovating to keep this valuable resource in a circular economy. WRAP is supporting industry to sort and reprocess more of this waste through the Mixed Plastics Loan Fund, as well as research projects that demonstrate commercially viable end markets for these types of plastic packaging wastes, which have been traditionally viewed as difficult to recycle."