In recent years we decided at Regonsite to take responsibility for the waste we generate and for us that waste was badges. Since the industry in Australia had an appetite for Epson (live colour) and Pre-printed TTR (Thermal Transfer) badges that waste was synthetic PP5 synthetic paper.
The advantage with synthetic paper being, it looked good, you didn’t need plastic sleeves anymore and badges were strong enough to last multi-day events. The disadvantage was it needed specialised care to recycle. So a recycling initiative was created whereby we would offer to collect and recycle badges free of charge.
But recycling specialised materials is a little more complex than throwing waste into a colour coded bin. The reality was, we were not sure if the material was truly going to be remade into something new.
So, I decided to double down with my promise and vowed to collect, with help of our customers, and store our waste until I was sure that the material was going to enter some form of circulation of material.
Deep down in my mind I knew this would not be as simple as taking the badges to the local Bunnings Warehouse PPE recycling bin and dropping it in and feeling good. I wanted to know without a doubt that the material was being recycled, more than that, repurposed. So, I decided to contact specialised PP5 recycling centres and ask if they would take my few cubic metres of waste and promise me, it would be recycled.
Some years later, I found one. Indeed, the material we had been using was recyclable. But that was only half the problem. Next, we had to process that waste into a resalable material and find a buyer. Really!! OK, I am now knee deep in my own waste, so I need a solution.
Thank goodness there are companies that care enough to do this. However, our companies’ responsibilities were not done. We needed to have a special bin to collect the waste. Whom I call “Big Pink”. The collected badges needed to be checked there was no connected lanyards, sticky tape or rubber bands attached. We couldn’t afford to have any other mixed waste in-between, or the process would be ruined. Then the badges were processed into resalable material, in our case, a cost of $250.00 per tonne to get it ready for a buyer.
The recycling company needs to find a buyer. Now by this stage I was ready to buy our re-processed waste back and pay again to make into something useful, such as recycling bins, but fortunately the recycling partner found a buyer.
I would like to applaud the team at Diversified Communications who, for the last 2 years, have been actively collecting the badges from some of the biggest exhibitions in Australia. It is with their effort I was determined to succeed. Also, all our other customers who made the effort to respond, collect and give our team the badges collected post event.
Now we have a buyer for our waste the challenge is provide enough material with consistency to make the process sustainable.
In short, event peoples, we need the badges back after the event. Please.
On a side note, if you really want to be environmentally friendly print stickers, stickers are just practically cellulose and gum, with wax paper backing on cardboard rolls. There is also card stock which is easier to recycle together with cardboard and paper, however like stickers is not as popular.
