Plastic Forests to recycle Send and Shred bags
Send and Shred recycle household and small business paperwork. Their secure destruction experts, Shred-X, shred and bale the paper and send it to an Australian paper mill. It's then turned into new paper products, like office paper or toilet paper.
Send and Shred is delighted to announce new arrangements with Plastic Forests to recycle the empty bags as well.
"We were always concerned about using plastic," said Send and Shred CEO, Jo Clay. "But our bags have to be strong enough to hold heavy loads of paper. They have to be secure and stay intact throughout the postal system. It's hard to find a container that does that. We tested over 50 designs, including paper, cardboard and boxes. None met our standards. We ended up sourcing our plastic bag from a specialist in high-security packaging. They make coin bags for the major banks and tamper-proof evidence bags for the police, so we knew they'd do the job right."
"Plastic is strong. If it's recycled, it's also good for the environment. It's lightweight, giving it a low transport footprint. It can be turned into almost anything. We're delighted to set up closed-loop recycling with Plastic Forests."
Send and Shred's empty plastic bags are shredded separately from the paper, to preserve the value of both recycling streams. The shredded bags are then be transported to Albury, where Plastic Forests turn them into resin. The resin is either sold back into the plastic industry or made into a sustainable GreenMongrel product, like underground cable cover, garden edging, root barrier or garbage bags.
While many hard plastics can be recycled via kerbside systems, plastic film and plastic bags are a problem waste stream. Plastic Forests were the first to commercialise their dry-cleaning process. They recycle contaminated plastic films without using water.
"Plastic Forests are really smart about sustainability," Jo continued. "Society has the technology to recycle almost anything, but it doesn't happen unless it's part of a circular economy. Look at what happened when China refused Australia's mixed waste. It was chaos, because we hadn't taken the trouble to set up the end markets ourselves. We can't simply recycle. We have to create useful products that get sold. Before you buy, make sure it's made with recycled material. And look for the Green Mongrel."
Find out more at https://plasticforests.com.au/