This ‘cradle-to-cradle’ solution prevents Kinder plastic conveyor components from ending up on a landfill tip.
By arrangement, clean and palletised components which were previously supplied by the company can be returned for recycling.
These plastic components then end up as pallets, shipping dunnage or fence posts, which of course adds further environmental benefit by conserving timber.
A typical example of this recycling will happen with the company’s K-Polymer range of conveyor rollers which are manufactured from high density polyethylene (HDPE), or the range of elevator buckets made from the same type of composite material.
Because the K-Polymer conveyor rollers are 50% lighter than steel rollers, less aggressive on the belt, quieter, resistant to wear and wont rust, yet they maintain a competitive price advantage over their traditional steel counterparts and are thus experiencing a growing level of use.
But with the growing use of plastics across all industrial sectors comes the issue of its disposal at the end of its useful life.
“Unlike the situation for homeowners, there are few collection schemes in place by local government to deal with recycling post-industrial plastics waste,” Kinder said.
“Consequently, far too much industrial plastic waste ends up in landfill tips where it can take up to 400 years to break down.
“Instead of paying to dispose of this waste in landfill, it makes much better business sense to recycle.
“The environmental benefits of recycling are undisputable and the economic benefits are clear,” he concluded.