The 4 Steps To Recycling Wheelie Bins

Step 1:
Washing, all the years of crud inside and outside needs to be removed, along with any stickers such as house numbers, all these stickers have adhesive behind them that needs to be removed prior to any recycling taking place.

Step 2:
Removal of the wheels, axles and hinges, basically all that a plastic recycler is interested in is the parts made from plastic, metal and rubber components would be stored separately and these would be collected by their respective recyclers.

Step 3:
At this stage the body and lid of the wheelie bin get dropped in to large shredders and comes out the other side as small regrind pieces of plastic, this regrind plastic is then tested and graded as to its composition. Regrind plastic is often re-used as is by adding a quantity to a mix with virgin plastic in the production run of a new plastic product, any that is not used will go on to the next stage in the recycling of plastic process.

Step 4:
This is the final stage in the recycling of plastic wheelie bins, here the cleaned granulated plastic is processed in to a recycled compound by melting and extruding in the form of pellets. These plastic pellets can then be used to manufacture a wide range of products, some of which could be more wheelie bins but equally likely is your new cars bumper could have been your tired old wheelie bin in a previous life.

Plastic Recycling Services

CK Plastic Recycling are specialists in mechanical recycling of most types of plastic waste and we operate from several sites across the UK. We buy all forms of plastic waste and sell product either as baled, shred, regrind and compound form.

New Appointment - Commercial Manager - Compounds

We are delighted to welcome Steve Bailey - Commercial Manager -Compounds.

Steve brings an impressive portfolio of account management and sales experience in Compounds and Commodity Polymers in a diverse range of companies and sectors in the UK.

His arrival strengthens our presence in this very important sector and he brings considerable value in our drive to compete with the best in this strategically important area for our business.

Steve's arrival concludes a successful phase of significant strengthening to our well respected commercial team and also heralds significant inward investment to heighten our competitive edge in this important and developing market.

Steve also has a strong engineering background and therefore also brings an excellent technical understanding of processes and material.

Further Bottle Top Recycling - for The Borders General Hospital

Another £700 has been raised for the Margaret Kerr Unit from the collection of 3.5 tonnes of plastic milk bottle tops for recycling (that’s about 5.25 million tops!) 

The presentation of the Cheque was made by Alan Gillie of CK Polymers, St Boswells (left in the photograph) to Andrew Brown of the Rotary Club of Galashiels and Sheena Cossar who co-ordinates the collection of the tops from all over the Scottish Borders, the Lothians, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Northumberland. Also in the photograph is Steven Gillie (Supervisor) CK Polymers, St Boswells. 

School children, Brownies and Cubs collect the tops as part of their recycling and ecology projects. Members of various clubs, churches, retirement and care homes, folk in banks, cafes and restaurants and hundreds of individuals all save their tops. Scottish Borders Council Recycling department and SBC Education department both help with this major recycling project. 

Volunteers meet twice a month to sort through the bags and remove anything that is not a plastic milk bottle top and transfer the tops to large bags which contain about 10kg. Between 25 and 40 of these large bags are then taken to CK Polymers, St Boswells where they will eventually become the outer casing for fibre optic cables. 

Now that the Margaret Kerr Unit is completed The Rotary Clubs will distribute future funds to small local charities in the Scottish Borders.

Closed loop recycling programme

CK distribution offer a closed loop recycling programme for wheelie bins and waste management throughout the UK. CK distribution is able to provide a solution to the collection of all your waste, from the disturbution of new units to the end users, to the collection of the redundant bins, to the disposal of old or damaged plastic wheeled bins throughout our sister company CK Recycling.

We make regular collections from local councils and waste management companies.

For more information then please contact us.

The Environmental benefits from recycling your plastics

Its a well known fact that recycling helps the environment, and more and more people are recycling waste from around their home, and in the work place.

So, if you don't recycle currently you may ask why you should start recycling? Making products from recycled products uses less energy than making products from virgin materials. This means less admissions in the environment in the future, slowing down the effects of global warming.


At C K Polymers we recycle plastics and provide the recycled plastic products either as baled, shred, regrind and compound form. 

Recycling Plastics

There are benefits from recycling plastics rather than just throwing them away in the bin! For example, did you know that making plastics from recycled products uses less energy and is better for the environment?

Recycling plastic may not seem beneficial to you now but if you recycle now this will create less pollution in the world your child will live in! To help you on your way to becoming green there are numbers on plastics to let you know what type pf plastic they are (Click here for a handy guide).