Bob Edwards introduced Bec Healy from Boxhead Plastics, a not for profit organisation established to recycle plastic waste from Australian motor vehicle bumper bars.
Bec advised that while 11.5% Australian plastic waste is currently recycled, only 1.9% of car bumpers are similarly reprocessed. Boxhead Plastics was founded in response to this plastic waste crisis.
By way of example, there are currently 29 smash repairers in Hornsby and 20.3 tonnes goes to landfill in Hornsby alone from these businesses.
Bec noted that it is difficult to collect the bumper bars due to the size and is costly to collect, however once collected by Boxhead, bumper bars are feed into large machines and remanufacturered to produce recycled plastic feedstock that goes into their products. Products are varied (as long as they are black) but can include golf tees, coasters or plastic block. 2000 golf tees are produced from one car bumper bar.
Boxhead targets 1.3 tonne of plastic removed from landfill this year and every $1 Boxhead spends removed 1kg plastic from landfill. To date 610 bumper bars have been recycled, 30,000 golf tees sold and 2.13 tonnes diverted from landfill.
In addition, Boxhead seeks to employ those in the local community with significant life barriers and create a stable and rewarding workplace.
Bec advised we can assist by following them on social media, by becoming a member, by purchase the products or become a corporate partner.
Omar also discussed how they were looking into producing other products and selling the recycled plastic product from the bumper bars to other organisations.
A wide variety of questions were then asked, and suggestions made.
Bob Edwards thanked both Bec and Omar for their talk and their goal to remove plastic products from landfill and produce recyclable products. It was discussed how many other products could be manufactured from the recycled plastics.
