Recycling your hard hats
Expendable product. Hard hats have a life expectancy of only a few years due to recommended replacement dates and wear and tear. This results in some businesses going through thousands of them each year. In fact, one recycling company estimates that businesses in the UK throw away several million end-of-life hard hats annually.
How to participate. Waste firm Yes Recycling has collaborated with some big names including hard hat manufacturers to create the National Hard Hat Recycling Scheme. There is at least one other scheme available, from UKWSL in Devon (see The next step ).
To recycle them the materials are broken down into polymer pellets which can be used by the plastic manufacturing industry to make new products.
Tip. These schemes seem to be open to anyone prepared to pay the postage cost to send hard hats to the facility, therefore you can use it even if you only have a small quantity. Both of the businesses we found were within the UK so postage costs will be manageable.
For further information on companies that recycle hard hats, visit https://www.tips-and-advice.co.uk , Download Zone, year 15, issue 11.
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