Turning plastic car bumpers into fence posts and fuel

Every year, thousands of damaged car bumpers reach our landfills but soon MTA’s plastic2eco initiative will change all that.

Roughly 100,000 bumpers end up in landfills every year in New Zealand following crash damage. Collision repairers have sought a solution to this environmental problem for years. Now the MTA has come up with a way to recycle the broken bumpers.

Dubbed plastic2eco, bumpers and other plastic waste are shredded and repurposed as part of the circular economy.

The barriers to establishing a programme are collection, transportation and a final end-use solution. That’s no longer the case.

Discarded bumpers will go into specially designed cages that Alloy Logistic Solutions collects from participating collision repairers. They’re taken to Waiuku recycling business, Future Post, and are re-purposed as fencing products.

Enviro NZ is investigating the use of plastic waste as an alternative fuel resource. It anticipates the fuel will replace coal for industrial uses.

The scheme kicks off this month, bumpers and inner guard liners collected from Auckland’s southern and eastern suburbs. Forty businesses should be participating by the end of next month.

Then it will expand to the rest of Auckland and include Hamilton and New Plymouth businesses. Next year the scheme takes in the rest of the North Island, and will extend into the SI midway through next year.

By the end of next year, no bumpers should end up in landfills.

Mr Fallowfield, MTA sector manager, said that “Insurance companies are critical to the success of the plastic2eco programme. We really need them to support participating collision repairers by paying for the collection and processing of the bumpers. Small business owners should not have to foot the bill.

It also allows the insurance industry to meet their own environmental targets.

“This is a massive step for our industry, and our goal of playing an important role in a healthier, cleaner future for everyone.” he added

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