According to Yes Recycling the scheme has recycled just shy of 10,000 hard hats from the construction industry since its launch in 2017, which go “directly into reprocessing”.
All hats are sent to the company’s specialist recycling facility in Buckinghamshire and are shred down into 10mm flakes.
The flakes are then separated into their “constituent polymer elements”, washed, dried, and then melted down and filtered. The pure molten polymer is then made back into brand new polymer pellet, the company says.
The recovered materials are then cleaned, filtered, and re-made into new plastics ready to go back into British industry.
Yes Recycling
Yes Recycling specialises in hard to recycle products such as plastic banknotes, crop packets and coffee cups.
The company said upon the scheme’s initial launch, it presented “some particular and unique challenges” however engineers designed a way to break the hats down and recover the plastics.
The scheme now has members from a rage of sectors including transport, utilities, defence and wildlife conservation, as well as the construction sector.
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 really 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”.
Network Rail
Sally Marquis technical surveyor from scheme member Network Rail said: “Recycling our hard hats through Yes
“Recycling our hard hats through Yes Recycling has enabled us to support our Environmental Sustainability Strategy by reducing waste to landfill through the waste hierarchy”
Recycling has enabled us to support our Environmental Sustainability Strategy by reducing waste to landfill through the waste hierarchy. It is positive to see companies such as Yes Recycling investing in initiatives to support businesses in contributing to the circular economy.
“Maybe in the future, an old hard hat could be recycled into a new one and we fully support that process.”
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