Cradle-to-grave component recycling

Kinder and Co is taking a "˜cradle-to-grave' approach with plastic components it supplies once they are at the end of their life cycle.

This solution prevents Kinder plastic conveyor components from ending up on a landfill tip.

By arrangement, clean and palletised components which were previously supplied by the company can be returned for recycling. These plastic components then end up as pallets, shipping dunnage or fence posts.

"In today's environmentally conscious society, increasing pressure is being placed on industry to put controls in place to protect the environment," said managing director of Kinder & Co, Neil Kinder.

"However, unlike the legislation that is in place for such things as atmospheric emissions or water and land pollutants, the disposal of recyclable materials is pretty much self-policed.

"In industrial applications, the strength and versatility of plastics has led to its use in areas where steel has been more traditionally used. One such industry that is seeing the ever-growing use of plastics because it operates in particularly aggressive environments is the bulk materials handling industry.

"So this in-house recycling development is expected to benefit this sector and hopefully trigger similar developments right across Australian industry," he said.

A typical example of this recycling will happen with the company's K-Polymer range of conveyor rollers which are manufactured from high density polyethylene (HDPE), or the range of elevator buckets made from the same type of composite material.

"Unlike the situation for homeowners, there are few collection schemes in place by local government to deal with recycling post-industrial plastics waste," Kinder said.

"Consequently, far too much industrial plastic waste ends up in landfill tips where it can take up to 400 years to break down."

The company has users with collection points in place on site, ready for when they next replace these components.