Recycled plastics, what are the differences?
There are two types of recycled plastic: post-industrial and post-consumer. When people talk about ‘recycled’ plastic they are referring to post-industrial plastic in the majority of cases.
Post-industrial recycled plastic
This is plastic that has been collected at the plastic moulding factory, and would normally be thrown away (off-cuts or rejects, for instance), but is instead re-used in the moulding process. Some mouldings unavoidably produce scrap and, in some cases, this occurs on a large scale. This type of recycling is relatively straightforward as there is a great deal of control over material type, consistency and almost zero contamination.
Post-consumer recycled plastic
This is plastic that has been made into a product, used, thrown away, collected, cleaned, reprocessed and remade into something new. Products made from post-consumer plastic close the loop, diverting plastic products from landfill and instead allowing them to be recycled (in its truest sense) into something else. Unfortunately, it is not easy to recycle post-consumer plastic; there are economic implications (collection, cleaning, sorting, re-processing, distribution etc) as well as physical issues such as irregularity in colour and grade, and contamination.
Post-industrial for coloured parts
Unless colour sorting is used in the recycling process, post-consumer plastic cannot be re-coloured and is usually a grey colour. This is why the coloured insert on the Ubin and the coloured lid of the Ubin mini couldn’t be post-consumer plastic and are made from 100% post-industrial recycled plastic.
Ubin: the world’s first post-consumer bin
We are delighted to announce that we have successfully managed these difficulties to bring this world first: a recycling bin made from plastic that was once yoghurt pots and margarine tubs in your own home!
