CAPS & CLOSURES 26 PETplanet Insider Vol. 24 No. 03/23 www.petpla.net using our own 100% recycled plastic, or we can work with them and take some of that waste from them as well.” Caps, lids and tubs are sorted by colour and shredded The production process is almost entirely manual. Caps, lids and tubs are sorted by colour and shredded. The range of colours have exotic names reminiscent of science fiction stories and movies. The change to white for all milk bottle tops isn’t an immediate threat; they have about half a tonne already collected and waiting to be used although they will be cutting the number of colours, from 15 to the most popular eight. They have expanded their range of materials to include DVD cases, which they already have two giant boxes full of. When the brothers started, they used a sandwich press machine but, two years ago, invested in two small injection machines with built-in heaters that extrude into steel moulds. The moulds are made by a business just a few miles from their workshop – they really are serious about minimising transport miles. Collect, recycle & reuse The machines are manually operated; while I was there, one of the part-time staff members was producing combs by turning a wheel that pushed warmed and ductile plastic down through a nozzle into the die, and maintained pressure by hand until the moulding process was complete. It takes time and is obviously labourintensive but the point is not peak efficiency; it is to demonstrate the principle of collection, reuse and recycling. That the business makes enough money to now support the Browning brothers full time, along with a small number of part-time staff, is a bonus. “When we started, we worked just one day a week. That day would start at 9.00 am and go on till midnight but it was just one day!” Matt says, with a cheerful chuckle. He showed me some examples of raw materials: bottle tops from milk bottles, shampoo and cosmetic containers and domestic cleaning materials. “We get our materials from the local community. About 75% of our supplies come from local schools and the rest from coffee shops, hair salons and companies who want to see their waste genuinely recycled. A lot of it isn’t, in fact; it goes to landfill. Recycling rates in the UK are pretty poor,” he says. The schools especially are enthusiastic; the recycling message is well established. Businesses join in when they realise that, by giving their waste to Brothers Make, they don’t have to pay disposal costs. “It’s a win-win; we get our materials for virtually nothing and they save on collection costs,” Matt explains. “We are a bit specific about what we will take but, once we do, we use all of it. We rigorously separate the different types of plastic – PP from HDPE, for example; we mostly use HDPE – and we collect and reuse our own offcuts and mis-moulds.” Matt cheerfully accepts that Brothers Make is a ‘cottage industry’ at present but demand is strong and rising and the Browning boys have plans to expand. “We have two machines currently and we are looking to grow to six, eight or ten. We will also be looking to hire more people. We want to get people in and learning the ropes on how to do it,” Matt says. “I would love it if we ran out of plastic to recycle but something like 300 million tonnes of plastic are produced every year. What we are doing is just showing people there is a way to turn the tap off.” www.brothersmake.com CAPS & CLOSURES The right tools and expertise to help with your rPET goals! Agr is uniquely positioned to support your venture into rPET bottle manufacturing with a powerful combination of Process Control tools, Process Consultants, and decades of industry experience. AGRINTL.COM • +1.724.482.2163
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