AN AWARD-WINNING Pershore firm’s campaign to tackle the global environmental problem of recycling car seats was boosted with a visit from a film crew from the BBC’s One Show.
Queen’s Award for Enterprise holders JMDA Design welcomed presenter and record-breaking athlete Iwan Thomas to interview Derrick Barker and explore what has motivated the company to try and dismantle their own car seats and examine the possibilities of an industrial scale solution.
The birth of JMDA’s car seat recycling campaign and to find a practical and commercial solution to tackling end of life products entering the landfill system, started more than 18 months ago
After interviewing consumers in the local area, filming began at JMDA’s storage units to fully understand why child car seats are so hard to recycle and why a scheme is not already in place.
As experts in designing car seats, JMDA’s storage units are full of car seats which were once used for research purposes, which then need to be disposed of on an ongoing basis. This was the launch pad for the campaign and through the interview with Derrick and Iwan, it was explained how staff at JMDA tried to dismantle the car seats themselves.
It could take up to a day of man hours to dismantle a car seat by hand, using power tools, mainly because of its rigid structure as a safety unit, but also because car seats are made up of a complex mixture of materials; steel, aluminium, difference types of plastic and fabrics.
“It’s not a question of whether or not car seats and the materials in it can be recycled. We’ve already proven that with our trial last year by placing car seats into scrap cars, which were then passed through an industrial shredder,” Mr Barker said.
“The biggest hurdle is moving used car seats from collection points across the country to processing plants for shredding. Obviously, there is a cost implication in moving the car seats and therefore the logistics are hindered by commercial factors.
“So who foots the cost of moving them? This is an issue for the whole industry including manufacturers, retailers, waste management and local authorities. JMDA will continue the work already started with the car seat industry to help establish a solution,” he added.
