Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Housewares manufacturer What More UK has launched a product range made from 95% post-consumer waste plastic.
The Burnley-based company describes its Wham-branded UPCYCLED collection as a range as ‘strong, durable, lasting storage boxes made from plastic that would have been previously shipped away’.
In the past, the UK has not dealt with post-consumer waste plastic within its own shores and has relied on its exportation to countries such as China. But in January, a Chinese importation ban on plastic meant that this plastic would either be burned or buried.
Working directly with recycling centres, What More UK has been testing and trialling a process which is now commercially viable, to create UPCYCLED.
Under the process, post-consumer waste is collected, recycled and washed. The plastic bales are then turned into granules with heat, and delivered to the What More UK factory. These are then melted and injected into moulds – and out of these moulds, the UPCYCLED plastic boxes are created.
What More UK managing director Tony Grimshaw OBE said: “The UPCYCLED range is a huge triumph for us. Instead of finding another way to either pass on the PP plastic (eg by incinerating it – creating toxic chemicals) or putting it into landfill (where it can take up to half a millennium to decay) we made the decision to work towards a viable long-term solution. We are encouraging other businesses to do the same.”
WHAM’s UPCYCLED products from What More UK
