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As I've been cleaning out my room the thought occurred to me that I have easily four pounds worth of plastic in left over and empty sprues from warhammer 40k models....does anyone know if they can be recycled and if so where at?

I personally feel it'd be wasteful to throw all that plastic away, there is nothing wrong with the plastic itself.

I imagine they can't simply be dropped off at a local recycling point, but is there some place I can mail them to or such?

Thanks in advance

Yeah, they're plastic. Put em in your recycling bin.

 Brother SRM wrote:
Yeah, they're plastic. Put em in your recycling bin.

that's all there is to it?
I didn't think it was that simple...thanks man

This is good to know. I've just been throwing mine away in the garbage. How about those Finecast sprues... are those recycable?

 djphranq wrote:
This is good to know. I've just been throwing mine away in the garbage. How about those Finecast sprues... are those recycable?

I don't think you could throw resin is as it's technically not plastic, BUT I'm sure you could melt it down and reuse it yourself...if you have anything to use it for

I think it can be recycled but many services won't take it. Polystyrene is PIC code 6, and most local services that come with normal refuse collection only cover codes 1-5. Of course all local authorities are different.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_recycling

Wargames Factory used to recycle sprues and give a discount on products. I have not heard of other manufacturers with a similar program.

 Howard A Treesong wrote:
I think it can be recycled but many services won't take it. Polystyrene is PIC code 6, and most local services that come with normal refuse collection only cover codes 1-5. Of course all local authorities are different.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_recycling

Mine only take one and two, so I guess that means I shall have to send them elsewhere

Niner009 wrote:
BUT I'm sure you could melt it down and reuse it yourself...if you have anything to use it for

Not very well, I'm afraid. Resin is a 2 part epoxy that is mixed immediately before injection into a mold where they then chemically react with one another. I don't think melting it down would work. It would just burn and give off rather noxious gases if you don't have proper equipment.

I would toss them into your recycle bin like I've been doing.

 spaceelf wrote:
Wargames Factory used to recycle sprues and give a discount on products. I have not heard of other manufacturers with a similar program.

I shall look them up


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 kronk wrote:

Niner009 wrote:
BUT I'm sure you could melt it down and reuse it yourself...if you have anything to use it for

Not very well, I'm afraid. Resin is a 2 part epoxy that is mixed immediately before injection into a mold where they then chemically react with one another. I don't think melting it down would work. It would just burn and give off rather noxious gases if you don't have proper equipment.

I would toss them into your recycle bin like I've been doing.

Okay, thanks

And I did look up Wargames Factory and their website says that they have discontinued the program

Recycling is the way to go. The plastic itself is uselessfor re-casting, however. It is thermollastic and re-heating destroys its chemical characteristics.

 spaceelf wrote:
Wargames Factory used to recycle sprues and give a discount on products. I have not heard of other manufacturers with a similar program.

They stopped doing this when they were taken over by their Evil Chinese Overlords IIRC.

 SoloFalcon1138 wrote:
Recycling is the way to go. The plastic itself is uselessfor re-casting, however. It is thermollastic and re-heating destroys its chemical characteristics.

Also melting plastic releases toxic fumes which are really, really bad for you. However, chopping or grinding sprues up (old meat grinders work!) make for a great way to make rubble for basing.

Yes, repurposing is good!

I saw on another forum after doing a google search that some people cut the sprues up and use them as bricks to make buildings....I may have to try that out

thanks guys

At the very least, you can make a necron army with them

Sprucrons!

 YotsubaSnake wrote:
At the very least, you can make a necron army with them

seems legit, maybe even heavy metal team quality

I don't know what the results would be, but you could use them when making casts of a part as 'bulk' I suppose to save on raw materials.

e.g say you were casting a model of a large square ammo box using GS, you could reduce the amount of GS by using hunks of sprue in the middle of the ammo box for the bulk, but with a good thick layer of GS around the outside to pick up the details.

I plan on using my left over sprues to reinforce some plaster buildings I am going to make.

Yeah you can reuse the sprue as filler (ground down to mix in with another product) to reduce weight for casting or my favourite was to run it through a meat grinder to make rubble for bases/tables.

I have even looked into cheap grinders for just this purpose but in the end I just put it into the plastic recycling with everything else.

In the Dakka Tutorials section of the Forum there is this thread on making terrain with sprue leftovers..

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/329231.page

-Porkuslime

 YotsubaSnake wrote:
At the very least, you can make a necron army with them

I have been slowly amassing a spruecron army like that for a long time lol. That was an awesome idea and I just had to try it.

The recycling pick up won't take them where I live.
It doesn't matter though as those sprues come in handy.
I tend to use them to build the framework when converting or scratch-building Ork vehicles.
They are also good for terrain building.

Reusing them as terrnain parts and also as the rims on movement trays is my main use for sprues. Aside from that all goes into the recycling bins. Shall look up wargames factory though.
Games workshop years ago mentioned they had a drop off point for peoples old sprues and that they could be mailed the sprues for recycling. Naturally there was no incentive to do so given by them, they just wanted free plastic

YAAAY!!!! YOU PEEPS ARE ALL SAVING OUR PLANET AND STUFF!!!

I think some one already mentioned this, but in case they didn't. Recycled plastic cant be 'melted' down and recast due to its polymer nature (already mentioned, you smart wonderful people you). However! As long as its the same grade of plastic and preferably color and ground super fine, it can be used in the manufacturing process as like 35%(I think?) of the mix to make a new batch. Cool part? It saves the whole production process about 40 percent or something like in energy costs alone. I like documentaries and such and I believe they did this explanation for pop bottles on 'Modern Marvels: How It's Made'

I took two 3 inch sections that didn't have branches off them and glued them together on their broad faces. Then with a hobby knife and file shaved this 'bar' down to a thick two sided blade. That went on a 'sword and tower shield' dreadnought. This 'lil guy was made up of the 'Assault on Black Reach' model, some hunter killer missiles from Predator/Rhino kits, Rhino doors, and a Captains Iron Halo. Just thought the sword might SPRUE-ce him up a BIT! (BWAHAHAHA, I LOLed myself, ...I'm so silly) He was a boring Dread before, now he has issues to work out with you being lamer than you could possibly imagine to his eyes. Funny story, the missiles went on as a joke before they made the rules that now let you take 'em.