DSC03427 hard hats 1

New life for hard hats

A lot of people are involved in the Rochester Bridge Refurbishment Project, which means a significant amount of personal protective equipment (PPE) is needed.

Much of this can be used again and again by the same person, but eventually items come to the end of their useful life and have to be replaced. Which leads to the question of what to do with the old items? 

One answer comes in the form of the National Hard Hat Recycling Scheme. The Rochester Bridge Trust has been accepted as a member of the scheme, which collects old, damaged hard hats and ensures they are fully recycled – and we mean fully.

The hats are completely shredded and then separated into their constituent polymer elements, which are then washed, dried, melted down and filtered. The pure molten polymer is then made back into new polymer pellets – the universal raw material for all plastic item manufacturing. Which means the hard hats can be re-made into countless other potential items.

Hard hats are made to last, so we don’t envisage having hundreds to send to the scheme, but when they do reach the end of their useful life, it’s good to know there’s somewhere useful for them to go.

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