BOTTLES FOR SCHOOL BENCHES

How one school’s recycling drive earned them a new playground picnic bench

The children of Byker Primary School in Newcastle have been studying a new subject - plastic bottle recycling.

Marmax Products Ltd, a leading manufacturer of recycled plastic outdoor furniture, promised to make Byker Primary School a new bench, in return for the school recycling as many plastic bottles as they could.

As as part of Newcastle City Councils Enviro Schools programme, Byker Primary School installed a collection point, and encouraged the children to recycle all their plastic bottles.

Closing the loop

The bottles were then taken away by North East Recycling, who crushed and baled them for sorting.

As part of the processing, the bottles were sorted into HDPE and PET plastics. To make the material for the bench, the equivalent of 1,000 HDPE bottles was chopped into pellets known as agglomerate. These pellets were then melted down and moulded into planks, which Marmax used to build the picnic bench.

Byker Primary School now has a permanent example of closed loop recycling in the playground – and all the pupils are reminded of their good work whenever it’s breaktime.

It’s a great way of illustrating why recycling efforts are worthwhile – and showing the recycling process in action.