Do You Know What Happens to Your Crates at the End of Their Lifecycle?
5 Steps That Crates Go Through at the End of Their Life Cycle
Suppose you have a batch of plastic crates that have reached the end of their life cycle while you are running your warehouse. What are your options? The last thing you want to do is throw them away, only to have them end up taking up a lot of space in a landfill.
Similar to Jumbo Bins® and other products used in various industries, it is essential for crates to end up at a recycling plant once they reach this stage. MPC is proud to be a plastic product supplier with on-site recycling plants to take care of the recycling of end-of-life products on behalf of our clients. Here are five of the things that happen to each plastic crate at the end of its cycle, and how we go about creating materials to make new products.
1. The Crates Get A Thorough Wash
Crates, Jumbo Bins®, and other plastic products that have been dropped off for recycling start by being sent to a specific wash bay. They are washed more than once by different teams inside our facility, which helps to make sure that the raw materials created end up being processed to the best of their abilities, resulting in a high-quality final product.
2. They Go Through a Quality Control Check
Secondly, we have a department that ensures that the crates are thoroughly cleaned. They are only cleared for the next step of the process after they have met all our stringent quality control requirements. In the event that some items do not meet our standards, they are sent back for another round of washing immediately.
3.Specialised Machinery is Used To Create Raw Materials
We then move our plastic products to the raw materials section of the plant, where they are promptly broken down using a specialised shredder. The idea is to get as much out of the product as possible, in a bid to have enough to work with for when it gets repurposed elsewhere.
4.The Raw Materials are Decanted
In a manner similar to how wine is decanted, the remaining raw materials are moved from the shredder into container feed before being palletised and granulated. By doing this, we ensure the end product is of the highest quality, and we guarantee that everything left over can be reused elsewhere.
5. A Final Round of Washing & Drying
The fifth step in the MPC recycling process is another round of washing. From there, the materials go through the centrifuge and end up where they can be thoroughly dried. Following this, the raw materials are now ready for another use, which raises the question of whether the crate would even qualify as having reached its "end of life".
