How to Recycle Your Hard Hats – It’s Easy
Recycling your hard hats with us is a simple process from start to finish. Just follow these steps and we’ll take care of the rest.
Step 1 – Place Your Order Online
Start by visiting our website and using the online ordering system. You’ll be asked to enter a few details – most importantly, your email address – and to pay a small recycling fee of £2.50 per hat, along with the shipping fee. Once your payment is complete, you’ll receive an order confirmation email. This email will also include your payment receipt and VAT invoice, so make sure you’ve entered the correct email address during the order process.
Step 2 – Get Your Hats Ready for Collection
Next, gather the hard hats you want to recycle and place them into a cardboard box – any box will do. Don’t seal the box just yet. You’ll soon receive an important email from us containing a document with a unique barcode. This barcode links your box to your order, so it’s essential that you print it out and place it inside the box before taping it shut. Without this document, we won’t be able to track your recycling.
Step 3 – Finalise the Package
After placing the barcode document inside the box, go ahead and tape the box closed. In the same email, you’ll also find instructions on how to access your shipping label and book a time to suit you. Please print this out and stick it clearly to the outside of the box. This ensures your package reaches our recycling centre smoothly and without delay.
Step 4 – Leave It to Us
That’s it! Once your box is ready and collection is booked, there’s nothing more for you to do. Our logistics partners – Royal Mail or Parcelforce – will collect the box from you and deliver it safely to our recycling centre. From there, we take over.
Step 5 – The Recycling Process
When your box arrives, we scan the barcode document inside to register and track your items. Each box is opened and its contents checked. Then, our team manually disassembles the hard hats into their individual components. The plastic parts are sorted by polymer type and colour, then granulated into small 10mm fragments. These fragments go through a high-quality extrusion, melt-filtration and pelletisation process, transforming them into clean polymer pellets.
These pellets are the standard raw material used in the manufacture of plastic goods. Currently, they go back into general UK manufacturing, but we’re working closely with our supply partners to create a fully circular system – meaning your old hats could one day become brand new ones. We expect to launch this next phase during 2025.
Step 6 – Compliance Made Simple
Once your recycling is complete, you’ll automatically receive a Certificate of Destruction and a Waste Transfer Note by email. These documents are important for your environmental compliance records, and you won’t need to chase us for them – they’re sent out as soon as the recycling process is complete.