Viridor pioneers hard hat recycling initiative

Viridor has launched the UK’s first hard hat recycling scheme which aims to divert thousands of ‘complex’ plastic products away from landfill every year. This is an especially interesting project considering hard hats only have a life cycle of two to five years.

‘Old hard hats will go from protecting heads to protecting the environment, taking on new life as a range of plastic products, such as bins,’ says Viridor of its newest recycling scheme. The waste management company partnered up with Polymer Industries for the initiative.

A trial has already been successfully completed with the help of Babcock International Group, resulting in 1200 hat hats being recycled.

‘Hard hats aren’t accepted for commercial recycling due to their complex plastic composition but we know our customers want us to identify a circular economy solution,’ comments Ian Poyser, Viridor’s Plymouth-based account manager. And he adds: ‘This new service is the result of two companies coming together in a mutual mission to take complex plastic items away from the general waste stream. It is just one of the many ways we are working to target specific plastic items this year.’

Jason Goozée, managing director at Polymer Industries in South Brent observes: ‘In the current climate where there is scrutiny over the use of plastics, we hope to show that it is not always necessary to design plastics out of our lives, but instead to design the best appropriate means of recovering and recycling them.’