Dainese, owner of AGV Helmets, has announced the world’s first helmet recycling scheme, using recycled materials from end-of-life lids to help make new ones. Currently, all old helmets, whether crash damaged or simply having reached the end of their useful life, go to landfill or incineration, and manufacturers are now looking for less ecologically damaging means of disposal, of which recycling is an attractive option, possibly saving costs on using all-new materials for every new helmet.

The research and development project, for which Dainese is currently building a new factory, appears to address two issues: the recycling of plastics in existing lids, and the design of new ones to make them easier to recycle when the time comes. The company is working with four other Italian concerns on the technology, including a Re-Sport, a spin-off from the University of Bologna which supplies bio-based solvents extracted from citrus fruit waste. After collecting the end-of-use helmets, Dainese’s new plant will process them to separate out different plastics (ABS, EPS and PC) to incorporate into new ones – they are aiming to recycle 5000 helmets initially. However, the Diainese Group R&D Director Massimo Varese was clear that safety would not be compromised. “Our purpose is still to save lives,” he told MCN. “The helmets produced will be of the same standard and safety characteristics as those made with fresh plastics.”

Jim Freeman at the BMF said, “This sounds appealing, whether the price of new helmets creeps up as a result, time will tell. Recycling plastics, its often been claimed that its far cheaper to use fresh material than recycled, the economics are very dependant on external factors, like oil prices and taxes.”

Written by Peter Henshaw

Top image courtesy of Dainese