Report 2 (of 6): Fine Point - UK
Introduction
Remarkable pencils made from plastic
cups |
 |
|
The world's annual consumption of plastic materials
has increased around twenty times since the 1950s to
almost 100 million tonnes today. At just one school
in south London it is estimated that pupils and staff
use nearly 1000 plastic cups a day at the water coolers
and in the dining hall.
The waste has now been transformed into a learning
opportunity: the cups are collected and reprocessed
to produce pencils, which are then sold within the
school by students who are keen to practise their
business skills.
Plastic Waste
The reasons for the increasing use of plastic worldwide
are many:
- Extreme versatility and ability to be tailored
to meet very specific technical needs
- Lighter weight than competing materials, reducing
fuel consumption during transportation
- Resistance to chemicals, water and impact
- Good safety and hygiene properties for food packaging
- Excellent thermal and electrical insulation properties
- Relatively inexpensive to produce.
The amount of plastic waste generated annually in
the UK alone is estimated to be nearly 3 million tonnes.
One of the main disadvantages of plastic made from
petrochemicals is its durability: once an object is
no longer required, it becomes a problem in terms
of waste disposal. There are some more degradable
plastics made from starch from foods such as corn
or cassava (see Plastic Fantastic) but the cost of
these is still higher than that of conventional plastics.
Food packaging, the main use of plastic, becomes
waste very quickly compared to other plastic items.
Because most plastics take hundreds of years to break
down when placed in landfill, the increasing amount
of plastic waste is placing great pressure on limited
space. The recycling of plastic is therefore a useful
means of delaying its entry to the waste stream.
Millions of vending cups are used in the UK every
week, and the Save a Cup Recycling Company was set
up to collect and recycle these. It is a not-for-profit
organisation, and argues that membership can help
companies who join the scheme to achieve environmental
standards. From an environmental point of view, polystyrene
is a valuable resource that is wasted in landfill.
There are economic benefits to recycling, too, in
the form of reduced disposal costs - the UK government
has imposed a 'landfill tax' on companies, making
landfill an increasingly expensive way of disposing
of old cups.
Recycling Plastics
It takes
25 2-litre plastic drinks bottles to make
one fleece garment
[Waste Watch UK] |
In recent years it has become much more common to
see items such as park benches, fleece jackets, pencils
and other office equipment made out of recycled plastic.
There are about 50 different groups of plastics and
the American Society of Plastics Industry developed
a standard marking code to help make sorting and recycling
easier, as follows. The listed types are numbered
from one to seven in the order shown, and both number
and initials are often visible on the plastic. The
uses listed are only some of the many possibilities
of these versatile materials.
| PET |
Polyethylene terephthalate
- fizzy drink bottles and oven-ready meal trays |
| HDPE |
High-density polyethylene -
bottles for milk and washing up liquid |
| PVC |
Polyvinyl chloride - food trays,
cling film, bottles for squash, mineral water
and shampoo |
| LDPE |
Low-density polyethylene -
carrier bags and bin liners |
| PP |
Polypropylene - margarine tubs,
microwaveable meal trays |
| PS |
Polystyrene - foam meat or
fish trays, hamburger boxes and egg cartons
(these are all generally made of expanded polystyrene);
vending cups (can be expanded or hard-wall polystyrene);
yoghurt pots, plastic cutlery, protective packaging
for electronic goods and toys |
| OTHER |
Any other plastics that do
not fall into any of the above categories -
for example melamine, which is often used in
plastic plates and cups. |
There are a few simple tests that can be carried
out to help identify unknown plastics, and these are
described in the ITDG technical brief on Recycling
of Plastics (see Further Information). However, a
common problem with recycling is that plastics are
often made up of more than one kind of polymer, or
there may be some sort of fibre added to the plastic
to give added strength, all of which can make recovery
difficult.
Only 80 per cent of plastics are commonly recycled
- the thermoplastics, which are sometimes classified
as four types: polyethylene, incorporating PET, HDPE
and LDPE above, as well as polyvinyl chloride (PVC),
polypropylene and polystyrene. Hard-wall polystyrene
is also known as high impact polystyrene. Plastics
in the 'Other' classification include thermosets,
which cannot be remoulded, although they are sometimes
ground up and used as a filler material.
Recycling method
- Washing and sorting - still mainly done by hand,
though machines are being developed for this stage.
- Size reduction - cutting (manual), shredding (by
machine), and agglomeration. This means heating
the plastic, cooling it rapidly and then cutting
it into small pieces - usually carried out in a
single machine.
- Extrusion and pelletising - extrusion homogenises
the reclaimed pieces and make them easier to work.
It involves forcing heated plastic through a die
to form thin strips or 'spaghetti', which is then
cut into small pieces or pellets.
- Once the recyclate has been pelletised, it undergoes
normal manufacturing techniques - extrusion, injection
moulding, blow moulding and film blowing.
Remarkable Pencils
Remarkable is a British company which takes everyday
waste products such as vending cups, rubber tyres,
computer printer parts, and recycled paper and board,
and turns them into stationery. Pencils are the flagship
product - they function like traditional pencils,
yet contain no wood, and so save trees as well as
removing vending cups from the waste stream.
Mixing the material for
making pencils at the Remarkable works
|
A new range
of Remarkable merchandise, made from everyday
waste materials
|
Learning Opportunity
The cups collected at Godolphin and Latymer school
in west London are made of hard-wall polystyrene,
of the type used in many schools and offices. With
700 pupils the school gets through thousands of cups
each week, and so they obtained special recycling
bins from Save A Cup Recycling Company, which collects
the used cups and processes them into granules which
are then made into pencils and pens, drip mats, and
other desk-top accessories.
The far-sighted teacher who began the project, Jill
Reid, commented: "Any bin could be used to collect
the cups, or it would be quite easy to hold a fundraising
event such as a cake sale to raise the money to get
started."
The inspirational move was to close the circle by
setting up a small business within the school, involving
around twenty 15- and 16-year-olds in selling pencils
and other recycled products to their fellow students.
The teacher orders and initially paid, for the goods,
but the pupils collect them from the Remarkable factory
where they are made, which happens to be near the
school.
The goods are sold by the pupils at a stall on Friday
lunch-times and, before Christmas, at a bazaar, and
pencils are given as prizes. They have a decision-making
committee, and take responsibility for advertising,
pricing and stock taking. The company caters for special
requirements such as colour preferences and the project
has been a huge success. It contributes to assignments
on recycling and conservation and helps pupils to
learn to work together.
The Future
Pupils at Godolphin and Latymer school have shown
themselves to be very keen on conservation. The school
is now recycling in earnest and planning to
reinvest money made from this project on other recycling
schemes, collecting plastic bottles, paper and other
waste products on its small site. If the project could
be replicated in all the schools and offices that
generate this volume of waste, environmental targets
would stand a much greater chance of being met.
Acknowledgements
This case study draws on information produced by
Waste Watch UK and Recoup (see below). ITDG is also
grateful to Jill Reid of Godolphin and Latymer school
for her input, Natasha Jervis and Tanya Mackay of
Remarkable for providing photographs.
Further Information
Remarkable Pencils Ltd
56 Glentham Road
London SW13 9JJ
United Kingdom
Tel: 020 8741 1234
Fax: 020 8741 7615
http://remarkable.co.uk/
Save A Cup Recycling Company
Suite 2, Bridge House
Bridge Street
High Wycombe
Bucks HP11 2EL
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)1494 510167
Fax: +44 (0)1494 510168
http://www.save-a-cup.co.uk/
The recyclate from vending machine cups is used by
manufacturers in products such as video cassettes
and vending machine parts.
Waste Watch UK
96 Tooley Street
London SE1 2TH
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)20 7089 2100
Fax: +44 (0)20 7403 4802
E-mail: info@wastewatch.org.uk
http://www.wasteonline.org.uk/
Provides extensive information about recycling, including
information sheets which can be downloaded from the
website.
Recoup (Recycling of Used Plastic Ltd)
9 Metro Centre
Welbeck Way
Shrewsbury Avenue
Woodston
Peterborough PE2 7WH
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)1733 390021
Fax: +44 (0)1733 551542
E-mail: enquiry@recoup.org
http://www.recoup.org/
Provides details of plastics recycling in your community,
assistance in establishing plastic bottle recovery
schemes, and current market information.
Appropriate Technology Development Association
PO Box 311, Gandhi Bhawan
Lucknow-226001, U.P.
India
Research institute - rubber and plastics.
European Centre for Plastics in the Environment and
Association of Plastics Manufacturers in Europe (APME)
Avenue E. van Nieuwenhuyse
4, BP3
B-1160 Brussels
Belgium
Tel: +32 (2)675 32 97
Fax: +32 (2)675 39 35
General information on plastics waste recycling.
Technical Enquiry Service
ITDG
The Schumacher Centre for
Technology and Development
Bourton-on-Dunsmore
Rugby CV23 9QZ
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)1926 634400
Fax: +44 (0)1926 634401
E-mail: infoserv@itdg.org.uk
http://www.itdg.org/html/technical_enquiries/tes.htm
A Technical Brief produced by ITDG's Technical Enquiry
Service on Plastics Recycling contains introductory.
This can be downloaded as
a pdf file
Reading from ITDG Publishing
Small-scale Recycling of Plastics, Jon Vogler,
1984, Intermediate Technology Publications
E-mail: bookshop@itpubs.org.uk
http://www.itdgpublishing.org.uk/
or phone or write to the address above. |
