SPONSORED FEATURE
igus sets up recycling schemes for its customers
T
o tackle the growing problem of plastic bottles waste found everywhere, including in our running waters, the UK government has finally given the green light to a plastic bottle deposit return scheme. As it happens, igus has already paved the way with its popular “chainge” scheme for end-of-life e-chains and a new recycling program for tackling old cables.
Welcome to a new scheme Consumers in the UK go through an estimated 13 billion plastic drinks bottles a year, of which only 7.5 billion are recycled, with the rest entering landfill, littered or incinerated. On 20 January this year, the
government announced plans to deploy Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for plastic bottles and drink cans in England, Wales and Northern Ireland by 2025. The system will work similarly to a reverse vending machine, where bottles are returned for money or credits. A DRS scheme in Scotland is planned to go online this August; consumers will pay 20p deposit when they buy a drink that comes in a single-use container made of PET plastic, steel or aluminium. They will get their money back when they return the empty container to one of tens of thousands of return points. The new DRS has been broadly welcomed by soft drinks manufacturers who will modify their labelling to promote the new scheme. Matthew Aldridge, Managing Director of igus in Northampton, recalls as a young boy returning glass bottles to the newsagent to exchange for 10 pence, which he then promptly spent on cheap sweets loaded with artificial ingredients! Now we see history repeat itself with a reward- based DRS designed to reduce plastic pollution.
Chainge programme is igus’s DRS As a manufacturer of engineering components made from high-tech plastics, igus takes its environmental responsibilities very seriously. For
20 May 2023 | Automation
several years, igus has been running its own DRS for plastic e-chains that have reached their end of life. Many of these heavy-duty and robust engineered plastic chains were previously thrown out, ending up in landfill because there is no specialist recovery service for them. The igus chain DRS scheme is manufacturer-agnostic and open to all plastic cable chain models. The recovered plastic is cleaned,
regranulated and then reused for making new products – a true circular mini-economy. A credit note is given in exchange for the plastic chain, an amount determined by weight, currently £0.62 per kilogram. As igus prefers names rather than acronyms, this is known as the “chainge” program.
End of life for cables But, this is not all! Inspired by the scheme, product manager for igus cables in the UK, Daisy Durrant, thought of developing a similar program for end-of-life cables. The
result is a cable recycling program – another variant of DRS. Once again, used electrical and electronic cables are returned to igus in Northampton, where the plastic out-jacket is separated from the metal conductors. The plastic is then regranulated, just like in the chainge program. The metal content is then sold, but unlike the chainge program, no credit note is issued. Instead, the proceeds are used in partnership with charity The Woodland Trust, to fund tree planting across the country. If the scheme is a success and makes
a profit from recycled plastic bottles from 2025, perhaps the UK government could take a similar positive and pro- environment action? Working together, industry and consumers can reduce carbon emissions and make a real difference to our world.
CONTACT:
igus
www.igus.co.uk
automationmagazine.co.uk
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