BodyLuma Smile

             Smile Plastics Recycled Mobiles 

Teaming Together brings a BodyLuma Smile 

Available in a range of Innovative and Friendly  Plastics from Smile

How Smile make it

Different recycled plastics sheets are made from different wastes and from a variety of polymer types. As a result of this the processes that we use vary from material to material.

Recycling isn’t just one process, it’s a series of processes which start with removal of waste from the conventional waste stream (that might end up in a landfill site), and the final step of the recycling process is when someone buys a new product made out of what was originally waste. These processes include, collection, baling, sorting, cleaning, granulating or size reduction, melt processing, forming of a new product, sale of the new end product.

Collection

Plastics waste is in everyone’s dustbin, but increasingly municipal authorities are collecting recyclable plastic bottles and passing them on to the next stage in the recycling process. For more information on this we recommend www.recoup.org.

Plastics waste is also generated in factories and commercial sites. Sometimes it is post-use and sometimes it is production waste. Post-use commercial waste includes pallet wrapping, drums and sacks and other packaging.

Plastics processing to make new products invariably produces some waste material. This might be faulty products or offcuts or even cutting swarf, and is normally referred to as industrial waste or scrap.

Sorting and Cleaning

There are thousands of different grades and types of plastics materials, some can be advantageously mixed together but most mixtures have poorer properties than the original individual components. The highest quality recycled plastics can be made when the waste contains just one material, so it is often essential to sort the waste into different types. This is why clear plastic fizzy-drink bottles are separated from the squeezy sort.

After sorting the waste may need to be washed to remove labels, dirt and, in the case of bottles, any residual contents. Most plastics waste is also granulated to a flake or small lump for easy handling.

The sorted, cleaned plastics waste is what we purchase for the Smile Plastics part of the process.

Processing

The material we buy often looks like multi-coloured cornflakes. We take this and add a measured amount into a large mould which is put into a hydraulic press. Then, through a process of heat and pressure, the individual pieces of plastic fuse together and take the shape of the mould. We cool it down and take out a solid sheet of recycled plastic – our product.

We make six sheets at a time at up to 180°C and at pressures up to 1000 tons. The equipment is therefore very large and strong!!

Most of our sheets are made from 100% waste plastic, we don’t add any binding agents or resins, it is simply the combination of heat and pressure that transforms the individual chunks or flakes into a complete board.

Eco-audit

Every industrial process uses energy and creates waste and recycling is no exception. It is obviously important therefore to ensure that any recycling process is environmentally worthwhile. We have conducted an energy audit on our process and established that making sheets this way from waste materials uses between 50% and 70% of the energy that would be used to create sheets from virgin material.

Because we do not melt the plastic completely, it gives off no noxious or harmful fumes whilst it is being pressed. The only smell is the smell of the perfume used in fabric conditioners as this seems to leach into the plastic bottles in their first life.

Specials

Custom colours and materials

We have a massive library of different samples that we could make into sheets. If you have a specific colour palette to work to and would like to use recycled plastic, why not drop us a line as we can normally find something to suit, if not, we can make one exclusively for you.

Soft and Squishy

The 'soft and squishy' range is different from our traditional products. We have found a clear, uncoloured plastics waste, originally intended for use in the medical sector. Because it is clear we can use it to encapsulate various things such as postage stamps, carrier bags, old movie film or photographs. Some things that we encapsulate become distorted, torn or discoloured but others stay intact, suspended in a clear soft plastic sheet for posterity. We have even added crushed glass from old bottles to make a heavy mixed material sheet