We take a peek
at the Film Industry!
The RFGTeam were very excited to get an invitation to see what goes on behind the scenes of the film industry. No – it wasn’t an invitation from Brad Pitt, but from Mike Tyrer at BPI Recycled Products. BPI is a leading UK recycler of polythenes, and one of their sites is in Stroud.
Mike explained to us that BPI collect waste polythene from all over the UK. This type of polythene is likely to have been wrapped round pallets of food from supermarkets. Approximately 670 tonnes of polythene per month travels up a conveyor belt, and is chopped up and then heated to about 180C.
Waste polythene travels up a conveyor to be chopped and heated
The hot plastic is then pushed through holes; coming out like spaghetti. The ‘spaghetti ‘ is then chopped up into tiny pellets which pass through water to cool them down.
Mike showed us some cooled plastic pellets
The pellets are then taken to the Extrusion Hall, and are reheated. The runny plastic is then stretched up to form a huge cylindrical bubble, that is pulled up to the top of the factory, where it’s then flattened into a sheet of polythene again. At this stage colourant can be added if necessary.
Hot plastic is pulled up to form a long cylinder
The cooled, flattened plastic sheets are then mechanically folded into large baskets until they are needed. The final stage is to add a gusset and turn the sheets into bags, but sealing and chopping the ends. The bags are then packed into boxes and sent out for resale.
Boxes of polythene bags, packed and ready to be reused
BPI make an average of six million new bags and sacks each week. Stroud District Council are one of the organisations who buy plastic sacks from BPI, which is a great way to show support for our local recyling businesses!
Hannah with a bag of pellets, and a picture of the finished product
A recycled, and recyclable, bag!
8 December 2009