The general public seems to assume that the milk carton and margarine tub they carefully wash out to recycle is then re-purposed within our shores. The reality of it is over 66% of plastic that the British public recycle from their home has in the past then been shipped away – With China importing 500 tonnes per year!

However, In January the Chinese banned all imported plastic recycling leaving the UK with a huge problem on what to do with all the extra recycled plastic sat in recycling centres across Britain.

What more UK, manufacturer, and PlasticBoxShop, retailer, were eager to find a solution on what to do with the extra plastic left from the exportation ban. Through recent improvements in infrared sorting technologies, and working directly with reprocessing centres to get the quality of material to a good enough standard they are very proud to say they have succeeded in integrating this household plastic waste into a new line of storage products.  Making them the first manufacturer and retailer to make and sell products from recycled household plastic waste.

 Gary Lyons, Managing Director and founder of Plastic Box Shop, said:

“Other plastic box retailers - including ourselves have always made products from post-industrial waste, but no other company in the UK has ever produced storage products from post-consumer waste. Our sister company What More UK Ltd struggled at first to source regrind material made from recycled post-consumer waste. However, after working closely with a plastic recycling company to get the material to the right quality, we have managed to not only start producing boxes made from at least 95% waste but make a box that is extremely durable.”

Until recently a lot of recycling companies just tended to recycle larger one use plastic products such as cleaning bottles, milk bottles and drinks bottles which are made from plastic types HDPE and PET.  To sort smaller plastic pieces such as pots, tops and trays made from PP plastic material was too labour intensive, so this got shipped abroad. The recent improvements in infrared sorting technology has taken the labour element out of the sorting process, making it commercially viable.  Nearly all the products that PlasticBoxShop sell are made from PP as it’s a very versatile and robust material.

PlasticBoxShop is very excited to offer their Wham UPCYCLED range because of the environmental advantages they will bring, with more plastic waste getting recycled into useable products and less waste ending up in landfill sites and the oceans.

For more information about Plastic Box Shop and their UPCYCLED product line visit: www.plasticboxshop.co.uk/search/upcycled

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