Yes Recycling celebrates three years of The National Hardhat Recycling Scheme

Yes Recycling is celebrating three years of The National Hardhat Recycling Scheme, a unique and innovative recycling programme for the construction industry, aimed at recycling old hard hats.

The National Hard Hat Recycling Scheme introduced a user-friendly method for old hard hats to bypass traditional waste disposal routes, thereby ensuring end-of-life hats could go directly into reprocessing. Yes Recycling then built a bespoke recycling capability at its Buckinghamshire facility specifically to recycle hard hats.

Since the scheme’s inception, members have sent in many thousands of hard hats to Yes Recycling. 

These are broken down and the different materials (including different polymer types) are separated and recovered. The recovered materials are then cleaned, filtered, and re-made into new plastics ready to go back into British industry.   

The scheme now boasts members from an astonishing range of sectors and businesses, including transport, utilities, defence, wildlife conservation, tree-surgery, extreme sports and, of course, the construction sector. The scheme has members from every corner of the UK, and the membership list is growing daily.

Director of Yes Recycling, Omer Kutluoglu, said: “When we launched it, we really didn’t know if the scheme would take off or not. But with the encouragement of Berkeley Homes, we gave it a go. I am glad we did. The response has been astonishing. We have been met with a wall of enthusiasm…and not just in the initial launch phase, but an enthusiasm sustained over the last three years.” 

“The consistent growth and success of the scheme is testament to people across the UK determined to do the right thing, not just for themselves but for their companies and the environment.

Their enthusiasm and positivity is immensely uplifting. Behind every single membership lies unsung heroes making a difference.”  

Omer continues, “One day we hope that we can make this a fully circular process, where the recycled material from the hard hats is put back directly into new ones, but for now we are happy to assure all valuable raw material used in making hard hats is properly recovered and fully recycled back into British manufacturing at end-of-life.”