Recycle New ABS Products

There is a great push across the world to properly recycle plastic products.

By law, single-use plastics – from plastic forks to supermarket bags – must be recycled in many countries.  Single use plastics have some form of identifier on/in them to make recycling possible.

There are discussions to extend regulation to multi-use plastics by 2030. Multi-use ABS plastic – the type used in household good and toys – has no identifier. ABS plastic goes into general waste, to end up in land fills, where it stays forever, or simply dumped. Either way, the environment is irreparably damaged, and so are the lives of people who live nearby.

Did you know that:

• 400m tonnes of plastic, worth $715bn, made last year
• 250m tonnes of that, worth $650bn, is multi-use plastic
• 8m tonnes of that, worth $21bn, is ABS plastic
• And its all growing at 4% a year
• The UK creates 4 million tonnes of plastic waste each year
• 65%+ of plastic waste comes from packaging, apparel and consumer goods.
• Only 9% of multi-use plastics is properly recycled
• 92% of UK people are worried about plastic use and waste

There’s a good reason business is interested in recycling. ABS plastic is relatively expensive to make, so recycling has value. Recycling ABS reduces material waste, increases material input, reduces energy consumption and saves money.

We are making something very simple – but ingenious – to help recycle new ABS products.  A big positive impact on the environment.

The Recycle ABS Tag

We will design a special ink that can be printed onto ABS products that identifies them uniquely, recycling them to point of producer. This ink will last the lifetime of the product, not have any impact on the chemical properties of the product, and be green, recyclable and biodegradable.

We can/will also provide the data backbone, so that producers can quickly track the products being recycled, this helping with material sourcing plans and forecasts. Aggregate data can be used by the producer to quantify the gap between production and recycling cycles. This is an input to the producer’s Net Zero goals. It can also inform lifecycle analysis (LCA) and environmental policy studies.

Recycling new ABS products is a follow on to our other project to recycle legacy ABS products. We will help reduce waste from both ends. It is totally aligned with our mission of doing innovative engineering to make our world a better place to live in: smart, safe and sustainable.