Wheelie bins have a relatively short lifespan, typically
just 5 hard years and they are ready for retirement. But what happens to them
after we cast them aside, have you ever wondered or even care?
Because wheelie bins have such a hard life and quality does
vary between manufacturers UK/EU bins will be certified and tested to EN840. In
addition quality wheelie bins are treated with ultra violet protection which is
needed to extend the lifespan and resist damage as without this the wheelie
bins exposed to sunlight will become brittle much quicker and tend to split
very easily.
The number of plastic rubbish bins that are replaced each
year from damage and wear is considerable, 100’s of thousands of plastic bins
are replaced and rather than sending these bins to landfill they are collected
by local authority’s and then passed to a specialist plastic recycling company.
Once the worn out wheelie bins have been collected by the
plastic recycling company they need to go through a few steps prior to being
recycled,
Step 1:
Power washing, all the dried on muck and rubbish inside and
outside needs to be removed, along with any stickers, as stickers will be stuck
on with adhesive this will need to be removed prior to any recycling taking
place.
Step 2:
Removal of all the non plastic components such as rubber
wheels and metal axles, all that a plastic recycler is interested in is the
parts made out of plastic, metal and rubber components would be isolated and
passed to other specialist recyclers.
Step 3:
This is where the body and lid of the wheelie bin get
dropped in to large shredders and gets transformed in to small regrind pieces
of plastic, this regrind plastic is then tested as to its composition. Regrind
plastic is often re-used as is by adding small percentages to a mix with virgin
plastic in the production run of a new plastic manufacturing process.
Step 4:
This is the final stage in the recycling of plastic wheelie
bin, here the plastic granules are processed in to a fully recycled compound by
melting and extruding in the form of pellets. These pellets are then used to
manufacture new products, some of these could be more plastic wheelie bins but
equally likely is your cars bumper could have been your old wheelie bin in a past
life.
Now there’s a thought for next time you are cleaning your
car.
