Recycled Materials

Here at Plastic Supplies Dudley Ltd, we try to recycle as much of our scrap products as possible

This not only helps us reduce the amount of waste that we are producing, but also allows us to keep our costs lower as we do not need to buy in as much raw material.

We do also buy in reprocessed and recycled materials such as polypropylene and nylons.

The main material we use at PSD currently is a reprocessed 30% glass filled nylon 6.

All plastics can be recycled, but some are harder than others to process. The plastic industry follows a number system to show how easily a product can be recycled.

• 1 = PET, Polyethylene Terephthalate, and is widely recycled.
• 2 = HDPE, High-Density Polyethylene, and is also widely recycled.
• 3 = PVC, Polyvinyl Chloride, and is capable of being recycled but harder to do so, so check with your local authority.
• 4 = LDPE, Low-Density Polyethylene, also capable of being recycled, but check with your local authority.
• 5 = PP, Polypropylene, hard or not possible to recycle, so try to reuse or avoid it. PP is used in tupperware, disposable cups, and some food containers.
• 6 = PS, Polystyrene or Styrofoam, hard or not possible to recycle, so try to reuse or avoid it. PS is used in disposable coffee cups, plastic cutlery and packing foam.
• 7 = other. This is usually a mish-mash of lots of different plastics and is pretty tricky to recycle.

Recycled plastics are readily available in a lot of materials

But due to the uncertainty of what has been included when being granulated, they are not always the easiest to mould with. All materials have a different melt flow and if there is a mixture between the products when they are recycled, it can cause issues such as blocked nozzles when it comes to moulding. This is why we always try to recycle our own waste so we know exactly what is going back in.