Petition - recycling of GW plastics

[Naysmith]

Hi all,

i hope we can make an impact on GW and persuade them to recycle sprue.

Supporting this petition https://chng.it/ybdSTh6n could make the difference.

Thanks for your support and please share!

cya

 

Edited July 29, 2022 by Captain Idaho
Title and OP amended

[Magos Takatus]

9 minutes ago, Naysmith said:

Hi all,

i hope we can make an impact on GW and persuade them to recycle sprue. This would help putting less carbon in the atmosphere and perhaps slow down climate change (not to mention microplastics).

Supporting this petition https://chng.it/ybdSTh6n could make the difference.

Thanks for your support and please share!

cya

 

I recall they used to accept sprues for recycling for a little while and then stopped a few years back. Does anyone else remember if they did and how long ago it was? Someone's going to make me feel ancient and tell me it was 15 years ago or something...

[Lazarine]

I asked about sprue recycling and dropped off 4 bags of sprues earlier this year.

As far as I am aware, they still do it, but communication between staff seemed pretty poor, so you may just need to catch the right person.

As for whether they actually did recycle the sprue, I have no idea

Edited July 27, 2022 by Drefanus Aldwinius
Formatting

[Casual Heresy]

I think this is a great idea, and I think it is something GW are working on. According to the Annual Report, they have a plastic grinder (forget the proper name), on site now and are able to turn surplus sprues back into raw material. Hopefully one day we can take empty sprues to our local shop so they can be sent to Nottingham to be recycled.

[Noserenda]

Didnt this idea get soundly debunked, repeatedly over the years? The carbon cost of shipping all the sprue back to hq being much higher than that saved by recycling them? GW recycles at HQ and a drop chute or something there would be nice but shipping the sprues specially from around the country, or worse, the world seems counterproductive.

There are a huge variety of things you can do to recycle sprue yourself though; making terrain in the form of ground/chopped up rubble/bricks, frames for walls or rails etc; making sprue goo to use as filler or moulding your own stuff; and im sure there are more things ive not even heard of.
 

[Marshal Reinhard]

8 minutes ago, Noserenda said:

Didnt this idea get soundly debunked, repeatedly over the years? The carbon cost of shipping all the sprue back to hq being much higher than that saved by recycling them? GW recycles at HQ and a drop chute or something there would be nice but shipping the sprues specially from around the country, or worse, the world seems counterproductive.

There are a huge variety of things you can do to recycle sprue yourself though; making terrain in the form of ground/chopped up rubble/bricks, frames for walls or rails etc; making sprue goo to use as filler or moulding your own stuff; and im sure there are more things ive not even heard of.
 

This. The climate savvy hobbyist needs to recycle his or her own trash, including sprues, sending to GW to be recycled would be folly. I'm sure GW, evil corporate entity as they are, still don't just toss theirs out in the woods either. 

[Xenith]

GW already recycles internally, and used to collect it. It would be good though to make corporations responsible for plastic waste. It wouldn't be hard to have a return point in GW stores that gets shipped back off to Nottingham on the weekly store delivery. 

 

As Noserenda, the issue is CO2 consumed in the return of sprues. They're light, but very bulky with a lot of airspace when stacked. You'd need a mini grinder in each store to shred them before packing and shipping to save CO2. Whether this offsets the 'green' energy released from burning them, as most places do with plastics (as it's cheaper than recycling them) is a matter or life cycle analysis. 

[Joe]

I know from conversations I've had with the chaps over at Renedra that the last few times this has been attempted across the industry (GW, Warlord and Renedra in particular) it's largely been pointless - there were too many impurities in the recycled material, meaning they couldn't really be used for what they wanted to use them for, i.e. more sprues for mass production and so forth. 

It's possible that's changed in the last five years, however generally speaking it's better to look at your local recycling options in this case.

[Redcomet]

Plastic recycling isn’t all what it is cracked up to be by environmentalists. There are a lot of issues with it. 

[SteveAntilles]

21 minutes ago, Redcomet said:

Plastic recycling isn’t all what it is cracked up to be by environmentalists. There are a lot of issues with it. 

This. I work for a plastic manufacturer. Recycling is expensive, difficult, and kind of particular to each individual manufacturer. The fact that GW has their own reclaim line is pretty cool, and probably the best we can hope for at this point.

[Waaagh?]

Think you might want to actually do some research before posting stuff like this. There's documented reasons why this isn't a thing. Been covered well enough above but you're much better off recycling it personally and locally. 

[Captain Idaho]

=][=

As is common practice here on the B&C, the Mod team have been discussing the merits of this topic in question and it has been determined that this topic can be reopened.

However, it is important to remind everyone of the mission statement of the board and to maintain discussion within those grounds. This is a place to discuss things strictly relevant to the petition and possible ways Games Workshop can implement the proposed recycling idea contained within the petition.

=][=

Edited July 29, 2022 by Captain Idaho

[TheVoidDragon]

12 minutes ago, Captain Idaho said:

=][= As is common practice here on the B&C, the Mod team have been discussing the merits of this topic in question and it has been determined that this topic can be reopened.

However, it is important to remind everyone of the mission statement of the board and to maintain discussion within those grounds. This is a place to discuss things strictly relevant to the petition and possible ways Games Workshop can implement the proposed recycling idea contained within the petition. =][=

I don't understand how discussing how and why the idea isn't feasible isn't relevant to it? Maybe i'm just misunderstanding what is meant there but it seems a bit odd to me if the discussion has to be only positive towards something that (despite good intentions) seem to be a misguided idea and isn't something that would really work for a variety of reasons.

Edited July 29, 2022 by TheVoidDragon

[Captain Idaho]

It doesn't have to be only positive. The general relevance to the board and closeness to the original intent of the OP was the original reason the topic was closed.

Discussion was had between the team here of how it could be opened whilst maintaining the integrity of the board's mission statement and rules, thus it being reopened with the statement you quoted.

So yes, you can now point out the value of of the idea and it's practicalities providing it stays within the confines of usual board parameters. 

[Arkhanist]

Currently polystyrene (which is the plastic models and sprues are made of) is vary rarely able to be recycled through local council kerbside collections in the UK as they don't have a process for it, so the standard advice is to put it in general waste. This then very likely goes to landfill. While this has a number of drawbacks, it does mean that the styrene isn't being burned and turned into atmospheric CO2, but stored underground - in effect, returning the carbon from oil back into the ground in a stable form where at least it won't contribute to ocean microplastics or global warming. Styrene put into council mixed-waste recycling streams though apparently is usually separated out with cardboard, and may well go on to an incineration plant, so this is not recommended.

There is an ongoing initative to recycle Expanded polystyrene (EPS) though - this is the white firm foam packaging that often is used for packing TVs etc, specifically from business waste, and there are several firms that specialise in recycling it back into reusable form. So if the CO2 for transport for that is less than that of extracting new (and the carbon price for extracting, refining and transporting oil is pretty high once you include methane leaks) for what is a very light and airy product, then presumably some form of central collecting and reuse of sprues by melting down to make new plastic could still reduce carbon emissions overall.

Edited July 29, 2022 by Arkhanist

[FelipeFlops]

So this is a quote from the recent Annual Report;

Quote

During the period we have started to recycle plastic - our granulator can take in finished goods and turn them back into raw materials. It's early days but a major step in the right direction.

While this doesn't cover plastic sent out to customers, it could be a sign of things to come?

[skylerboodie]

i was told that customers could drop used sprues back to Warhammer World when visiting and they'd recycle but not efficient for them to be shipped back via stores. So, at least there is that option for UK-based conscious fraters who frequent WHW at least, until improvements are made to recycling. (Prob best to still call ahead and check with WHW that they still take before turning up with a boot-full though!)

[Captain Idaho]

From those who know, what can we do on a personal level to dispose of unwanted miniature plastics? Especially if there's no nearby large recycling facility?

I saw someone mention some sort of glue from melted sprues? What use does such a thing have?

Stuff like that is helpful for those who haven't a clue.

[Joe]

Sprue-gloo is a great way of recycling them - makes it easier to fill in gaps on models, a great example of this is the gap on the studded pauldron on the new Mark VI.

Beyond that? If you can't find a recycling facility that'll take them it's time to get creative - use them for basing, constructing terrain, etc. 

[Azekai]

6 minutes ago, Captain Idaho said:

From those who know, what can we do on a personal level to dispose of unwanted miniature plastics? Especially if there's no nearby large recycling facility?

I saw someone mention some sort of glue from melted sprues? What use does such a thing have?

Stuff like that is helpful for those who haven't a clue.

I would be concerned about toxicity from the rendered down plastic; whatever can break those chemical bonds is probably going to be nasty stuff.

[sarabando]

GW uses polystyrene plastic 

Is polystyrene recyclable plastic?

 

 

Because polystyrene is a plastic that is formed from styrene (a liquid hydrocarbon), it is not able to be recycled.

[AenarIT]

As I commented on another discussion on this topic: I think it’s a laudable idea but does it make sense? 
Here in Italy the city council does door-to-door garbage collection and you have to sort various materials yourself. 
Plastic (bottles, packaging, … warhammer sprues) is collected separately and then recycled. 
Shipping sprues back to Nottingham would probably be less environmentally friendly. 

[excelite]

26 minutes ago, Azekai said:

I would be concerned about toxicity from the rendered down plastic; whatever can break those chemical bonds is probably going to be nasty stuff.

AFAIK the most common way to create  the goo is to drop chucks of sprue into tamiya glue bottles and let it sit until it’s molten. 

Edited July 29, 2022 by excelite

[Captain Idaho]

It's probably worth pointing out right now that any use of dangerous chemicals is best left to an adult, for the Blood Claws amongst the Frater.

If you can't arrange such things, don't try and do it yourself. No matter the goodwill you might have, it's not worth serious injury. 

[Ammonius]

I always cut up emptied sprues into 1 or 2 inch segments and put them in a blender that I set aside specifically for the purpose. I'd also add chunks of cork, dried greenstuff, debris from doing conversions, bits of dried glue, and the like. Pulse the blender a few times and then put the result through a sieve. The chunky bits are excellent basing material, with random corners and sharp edges that can be painted as stone, masonry, or metal. The fine stuff that separates out gets mixed with flock to make a grittier texture.

Obviously this method is involved and takes time, but the results worked well for me.