Plastic Drum Recycling Project

Approximately 12 million 25 litre plastic drums are consumed annually in the UK and they find use in many industry sectors.

In the Printed Circuit Board and Metal Finishing sectors they are used to supply process chemistry to Printed Circuit Board manufacturers and metal platers. These drums represent a major source of recyclable High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) since the containers are made of a single polymer, and constitute an easily recognisable waste stream that provides an homogeneous recyclate. Unfortunately, most of them are used just once and then consigned to landfill. This approach is undesirable from an environmental perspective and represents a non-sustainable approach to managing a supply of finite petrochemical based raw materials. Preferred environmental options to disposal into landfill include reuse and recycling.

Intellect was the lead partner in a project with Shipley Europe Ltd and Delleve Plastics that studied the feasibility of recycling these drums and using the granulated plastic from them to make new products.

With support from WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme) the project sought to define the scale of the opportunity in our industry sectors and to identify recycling routes and methods for the HDPE from which new products can be manufactured. The work also identified and assessed some of the main obstacles that to date have inhibited the recycling of these containers used in the PCB and related sectors.

The issues of chemical contamination that have prevented the recycling of these containers in the past have also been considered.

Viable recycling pathways have been found and a number of real applications in which the recyclate can be put to use have been identified. A pilot recycling trial has been successfully undertaken at Shipley and this has lead to recycled polymer being converted into sub-soil drainage pipes by Delleve.

Although in many cases it is not economically viable to recycle used 25 litre drums, recycling does offer a potential alternative to the increasingly costly option of consigning them to landfill. Recycling is uneconomic for smaller companies, largely due to the high collection costs associated with transporting spent containers, the disparate locations of the end-users, the small quantities of drums generated at these locations and the relatively low purchase price of virgin drums.

However, for larger companies generating more drums, recycling may be cheaper than consigning them to landfill. A report is currently being prepared which details the findings of this project and will be available shortly. It is hoped that it will be possible to extend this drum recycling activity to include other industry sectors in the future, so that economies of scale will help adjust the economics enough to make 25 litre drum recycling more attractive to a wider audience.

Download

Investigation of Technical and Economic Viability of Recycling 25-litre Plastic Drums to Supply Process Chemistry to Metal Finishing Industries (PDF 1740KB) 

For more information about this project please contact:

Claire Yarrow
Marketing Communications Manager
T 020 7331 2050
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