Recycling

[Peter Rogers1707819314]

When I finish a kit I don't generally keep parts I don't use or sprue, So Is Airfix plastic recyclable

[Ratch]

It is, but some local councils don't do it. We used to granulate styrene at Mettoy and re-use it.

[Pretty Mediocre Modeller]

:When I finish a kit I don't generally keep parts I don't use

You should keep those parts, you never know when they could come in handy for another build

[Jillian -361425]

The plastic used in Airfix kits is usually polystyrene, which is a commonly recyclable plastic type. However, the recycling facilities available in your area may have specific requirements for plastic recycling, so it's best to check with your local recycling center to see if they accept polystyrene plastic. It's worth noting that even if you don't keep the leftover parts or sprue, it's still a good idea to dispose of them responsibly. Improperly discarded plastic can harm the environment and wildlife and it can be used for later or for something else.

[81F]

Given that my local Authorities advice on recycling specifically excluded "polystyrene" yet allowed allowed allowed yogurt pots I telephone to clarify, but the young lady on the phone was ademant that the "polystyrene" sprus could not be.

The same was also said of old Hornby plastic bodies.

I think this was a classic case of a call-centre operative reading from a script which assumed that all polystyrene was of the expanded variety!

[Tour de Airfix]

I figured my empty sprue would be ideal for recycling so included them with my plastics. The collecting team left a label on my un-emptied bag with the words "No toys" 🤷‍♂️

I'm thinking that just as those Nespresso Coffee Pods seem to be actively recycled, Airfix and other model makers would be keen to have our plastic back to be recycled. I can't believe how much I'm now placing in the landfill bin at a time when we all know how damaging plastic is now becoming to our planet ... over to you Team Airfix, time to lead the way as you always have in this industry 😊

[Tour de Airfix]

Interesting update from Warhammer ... could be the start (?)

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2023/03/07/recycling-trial-announced-new-life-for-old-sprues/

[Ratch]

2 hours ago, Tour de Airfix said:

over to you Team Airfix, time to lead the way as you always have in this industry 😊

It would be a huge logistical problem. Getting our waste styrene to a collection point. Then what do they do with it? Production is mainly in India. Do they ship it half way around the world again? From what I remember, the injection moulding process doesn't work with 100% re-granulated styrene, so how much could be used. Of course, anything can be done, but at what cost?

[Tour de Airfix]

Agreed Warhammer don’t reuse the plastic in their new kits either but are researching opportunities here. The plastic is used instead for other lower quality products. It is after all something all responsible manufacturers need to start doing. 
 

Perhaps kits should be issued with all larger pieces off the sprue and just leave small delicate bits attached. Something needs to be done as our hobby cannot continue this day and age to produce such levels of waste. 

[Dominic Thomas]

I agree with the recycling concept completely. However, being green always comes at a price. 
While this post has been linked with Airfix, it’s obviously an industry problem. I wouldn’t be able to separate the sprues from the different companies. Do they all use the same formulation? How compatible would the mixed recycled product be?

Perhaps an option might be to supply the used sprue to the cottage industry companies - just a thought. 

[Sailorman]

The first thing one has to do is determine whether polystyrene can actually be recycled.  This is what the internet says!

As polystyrene is a plastic formed from styrene (a liquid hydrocarbon), it's not recyclable.

 

 

[Tour de Airfix]

I find internet is a maze of rabbit holes and dead ends, and the quality of some sources can be suspect.

The link to the source I shared earlier indicated that Warhammer have been recycling their polystyrene sprue since 2023. The British Plastics Federation announced in 2021 of INEOS having plans to set up the first European Polystyrene Recycling plant in 2023. Could the two events be connected? Maybe not, but food for thought. 

https://www.bpf.co.uk/article/ineos-styrolution-recycling-technologies-and-trinseo-progress-p-1902.aspx

On their website, INEOS share their use of Depolymerisation, which in a world first INEOS has proven the concept for polystyrene.  Depolymerisation is where polymers are recovered and separated from waste polystyrene then unzipped back to the starting monomers from which they were made. These can then be purified and repolymerised to make high purity virgin resin. It has demonstrated full circularity by depolymerising waste polystyrene back to styrene, then Repolymerising it to make products identical to fossil carbon-based materials.

https://www.ineos.com/sustainability/circular-economy/recycling/#

British Plastics Federation state that every type of plastic can be recycled … technically. But the extent to which they are recycled depends upon economic and logistical factors. INEOS report that one of the main bottlenecks, is the economic collection and recovery of sufficient volumes of plastic waste of the right quality. (Probably why Warhammer are only collecting in their own sprue, and Aylesbury Granulation Services talk of the specialist closed loop toll granulation service .. read on 😊)

https://www.bpf.co.uk/Sustainability/Plastics_Recycling.aspx#4.2

Two companies I have found by quickly searching on the interweb are:

Let’s Recycle, who say that after the polystyrene has been recycled, it can be given new life in manufacturing in a wide variety of products across various industries. 

https://www.letsrecycleit.eu/ps-polystyrene-recycling-uk/

And closer to home, Aylesbury Granulation Services have page on Plastic Sprue Recycling where, in addition to other services, they say they work with manufacturing companies who have waste plastics, in the form or sprue waste, lump waste, end of life or redundant stock waste, etc.  Interestingly, because they know the specification of the plastic used in the original product, they like to have that material back for re-use in new manufacturing. This is closed loop toll granulation.

https://www.agsplasticgranulation.co.uk/services/plastic-sprue-recycling/

Ergo, Polystyrene is recyclable …

Over to you Airfix and the plastic experts, as I think us armchair scientists have probably reached our technical limit and understanding of the subject 😉 

[Sailorman]

Unless they can come up with a procedure that makes financial sense I can't see anyone doing it.

[peebeep]

7 hours ago, Tour de Airfix said:

Over to you Airfix and the plastic experts, as I think us armchair scientists have probably reached our technical limit and understanding of the subject 😉 

Airfix frames actually carry this logo and have done so for quite some time.

[Ratch]

This conversation is becoming rather circular too.

[Tour de Airfix]

I’ve had a reply from our friends at Airfix:

The concept of sprue recycling is something that has been looked into in the past and is being looked into again as I understand. There are various logistical complications with implementing such a scheme but the environment is something we wish to do our bit to protect. 

 

Kind Regards,

Sam Coventon

Hornby QC Team

 

So thank you Sam, fingers crossed we hear something soon on this. I find it hard to ignore, in these days of greater environmental awareness, how the explosion we’ve seen in the numbers returning to this great hobby must be having an equally large down stream impact on our environment 😢

[Dominic Thomas]

It’s encouraging that Airfix are looking at this. Undoubtedly they will be looking at not just logistics but also waste classifications, processing parameters, and raw and final material properties to name but a few. The greater availability of grants for recycling these days should not be ignored. 
As far as logistics are concerned, they could do worse than follow the example  of computer printer ink suppliers who include prepaid envelopes for the return of empty cartridges. Getting all the waste together in one place has to be a good start. Even an increase of, for example, £1 per kit to include the envelope should not adversely affect sales, surely? I use this figure because my wife informs me that some of her makeup suppliers have costed this facility at £0.62 per pack. 

[Tour de Airfix]

Snap! I suggested the very same thing. The cash Airfix could even get for the scrap may even pay for the envelopes & processing. Win win 😊

[Ratch]

There would be customers who complain about a 62p price hike - they are vocal every time there is an increase (they think a kit should still cost 2/6).

[peebeep]

On 12/04/2024 at 12:56, Ratch said:

...they are vocal every time there is an increase (they think a kit should still cost 2/6).

^^^This. 

[Tour de Airfix]

Interesting to see the new Mustang produced with sprue runners without a frame … less plastic waste 🤔👍

 

[john redman]

Thinking of ways in which odd bits of paint-stained multicoloured plastic could be posted back to Airfix or elsewhere on diesel vans to save the planet feels like a dead end. It would surely make more sense to take a step back and think about whether the process before this stage could be reworked so as to make it more feasible. 

Aside from identifying parts during assembly, and cheapness of course, there seems no need for the sprues to be sent out with the kit. Lego blocks don't come on sprues. In fact, neither does almost anything else made of plastic. When you buy a new wiper blade for your car, it doesn't come on a sprue you have to detach. Plastic rawlplugs do but that's about it, and they're pennies.

So could you detach the parts from the sprues before the packaging stage, with the part numbers either engraved onto the part, or the parts for each stage bagged separately, or moulded in different colours for ease of IDing them? Everything else you're expected to assemble, from flatpack furniture to Lego, works like that. The producer that makes the sprues then collects them all up each day without wastefully shipping them hither and yon. They'd never leave the factory. 

Cost would probably be the issue, but there's going to be a cost to this no matter what you do. 

On 12/04/2024 at 11:28, Tour de Airfix said:

Snap! I suggested the very same thing. The cash Airfix could even get for the scrap may even pay for the envelopes & processing. Win win 😊

It definitely won't! If recycling made economic sense, people would pay us for our recyclables. The fact that we have to pay to have it taken away speaks volumes. In 2018, Westminster Council incinerated 80-odd % of the rubbish it collected. That wouldn't happen if it had any value. So when you carefully separate your junk and put your cardboard in the green bin, it makes no difference - it more or less all just gets bundled back together again and burnt. 

[paul71]

1 hour ago, john redman said:

So could you detach the parts from the sprues before the packaging stage, with the part numbers either engraved onto the part, or the parts for each stage bagged separately, or moulded in different colours for ease of IDing them?

How many people would have to be employed to remove the parts from the sprues and what would the cost of doing this be added onto each kit to cover there wages and work space, as for putting each stage in bags these very bags would be plastic waste them selves, and again there is wages space and the bags all adding to the cost of the kit, as for different colours for parts to id them wouldn't they need to be moulded separately all having there own waste and added costs of moulds and different colour plastic pellets and there storage all adding even more to a kit, this cost would dwarf what it would cost for us to send the few bits back.

1 hour ago, john redman said:

It definitely won't! If recycling made economic sense, people would pay us for our recyclables. The fact that we have to pay to have it taken away speaks volumes. In 2018, Westminster Council incinerated 80-odd % of the rubbish it collected. That wouldn't happen if it had any value. So when you carefully separate your junk and put your cardboard in the green bin, it makes no difference - it more or less all just gets bundled back together again and burnt.

  There are many firms out there making a profit recycling all sort of things you paying them to do it instead of them paying you just increases there profits ( a smart move by them), Carefully separating your junk properly MAKES A BIG DIFFERENCE ( contaminated loads wont be rejected and sent to land fill or burnt)  you might not see it or benefit it but our great grandkids will benefit from us trying to sort it now.

[john redman]

1 hour ago, paul71 said:

How many people would have to be employed to remove the parts from the sprues and what would the cost of doing this be added onto each kit to cover there wages and work space

Well, somehow Lego manage it. 

[paul71]

20 minutes ago, john redman said:

Well, somehow Lego manage it.

its all done by machine all the parts are ejected as individuals the bit of sprue is even taken by machine and recycled but they are bigger robust parts, look on you tube there's a great video on making lego bricks, airfix have very small fine parts and would brake using that method.