How Are Wheelie Bins Recycled

Plastic wheeled bins are manufactured using a process known as injection moulding,

Wheelie bins consist of two main plastic components, these are the body and the lid, and these will be made from separate moulds. Any additional parts such as wheels, axle and hinges will of course be added to make a finished and ready for action wheelie bin.

Wheelie bins lead a hard life disposing of our rubbish week after week, so it’s understandable really that they don’t last for too many years before they start to break, hinges snap, sides of the body split. You might be surprised to learn that not all wheelie bins are created equally, substandard bins imported from China often are lacking in UV protection, and this is a key component as sunlight causes the bins to become brittle.

The amount of wheelie bins collected by plastic recycling companies and local authorities is huge, 100’s of thousands each year have to be replaced through wear or damage, so it makes sense that the plastic that has made them is recycled and used again, this is much more favourable than sending tons of scrap plastic to landfill sites.

Once the scrap plastic bins have been collected by a plastic recycling Specialist Company they undergo a number of recycling steps as follows;

Step 1:

Wash the bins, all the years of muck inside and outside needs to be removed, along with any adhesive stickers such as house numbers, this need to be removed prior to any recycling taking place.

Step 2:

Strip, removal of all non plastic components such as wheels an axles, these would be passed to rubber and metal recycling companies. The plastic recycler is only interested in the plastic element of the bin.

Step 3:

Shredding, the plastic bin is dropped in to large shredding / grinding machines and comes out the other side as small reground pieces of plastic, this reground plastic is then tested and graded as to its composition. Regrind plastic is often re-used as is by mixing this with new plastic in small quantities in large production runs, using reground plastic can be very cost effective.

Step 4:

Extruding, this is the last step in the recycling of plastic bins, at this point the reground plastic is processed in to a recycled compound by melting and extruding in the form of pellets.

Susanna Michael