It would be safe to say that Australians love to recycle and are good at it right? However, did you know that Australians dump 3.5 million tonnes of plastic each year and only 9.4% reach a recycling facility? This staggering statistic shows the importance of recycling and reusing plastics. Thankfully, Rainbow Shade loves to recycle. Our Z16 and Extreme 32 fabrics are 100% HDPE, allowing us to put our fabric through a recycling program.

What is HDPE?

HDPE, High-Density Polyethylene, is an extremely durable thermoplastic polymer made using petroleum. This plastic is extensively used worldwide to make many commonly used objects. Things such as:

  • Milk bottles

  • Shampoo & Conditioner bottles

  • Kids toys

  • Garbage bags

  • Hard hats

  • Snowboards

  • Pipes

  • Ziplock bags

HDPE is also easy to recycle and is accepted at most recycling centres around Australia. Objects made using HDPE can easily be identified with a recycle symbol with the number two in the centre.

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Our Recycling Process

Thankfully our shade fabrics are made of HDPE. This allows us to put our fabric through a recycling program to help reduce non-biodegradable waste. When there is excess shade fabric or an old shade sail that has reached the end of its service life, we send the fabric to a recycling facility in Melbourne instead of throwing it away to become landfill. There, the material is recycled into HDPE pellets. These recycled HDPE pellets then can be used to make many different objects.

What is it Recycled into?

Through this recycling program, our fabric can be recycled and reused as:

  • Bollards

  • Decking

  • Fencing

  • Exercise Equipment

  • Furniture

  • Signage

  • Dog Agility Equipment 

As time goes on, the importance of recycling is gaining more and more attention helping Australians to get better at it. At Rainbow Shade, we understand just how vital it is to recycle and reuse plastics. That’s why we’re deciding to do what we can for the Earth and recycle our fabrics.

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