“You’d be surprised at how much you can still scrape out of what seems like an empty bucket.”
What is there actually to say about a bucket scraper? At first glance it somewhat resembles an ice scraper. Yet there is more behind it than you might think. With a view to recycling and sustainability, but above all the scraper also had to work well and last a long time. ‘To begin with, the bucket scraper itself is also produced from recycled plastic,’ says product manager Tile Technology Dino Brouwer. ‘We have been working for some time with various parties for the recycling of our product buckets. BGI Tegelwerken and Kras Recycling from Volendam, FIRE-OFF from Haaksbergen and Circular Plastics Alliance that brings parties together. In practice it turned out that our buckets were not always easy to scrape clean. We looked for a smart solution for that and that ultimately became this bucket scraper. Several customers are now working with it and we are only receiving positive feedback from them.’
‘Handy tool’
On behalf of BGI, site manager Johan Molenaar was involved in the project. ‘Our people are now using the bucket scraper and I will hear their experiences soon. I myself am in any case very satisfied with it. It is a handy tool that simply does what it is supposed to do: scrape buckets as clean as possible. You would be surprised at how much you can still scrape out of what appears to be an empty bucket! You are therefore working sustainably, because to be able to recycle, a bucket must be properly scraped clean. I also enjoyed working on this smart solution together with Dino Brouwer and my colleague Jan Tol.’
Made in the Netherlands
‘What I also like is that the bucket scraper is produced in the Netherlands by FPI from Amstelveen,’ Dino continues. ‘And therefore from recycled plastic. FPI had to assess whether our design was feasible and whether the bucket scraper could also last for a longer time. The practical starting point for the scraper was our 18 kg bucket of the 686 Supercol. The scraper has a kind of lip with which you can easily scrape the rim of the bucket clean all around. But because within the Forbo Group we also use other buckets, we asked FPI whether they could execute that lip with a scoring line, so that the bucket scraper can also easily be cut to size for other buckets. That is something you can safely leave to FPI, because they are specialists in plastic injection moulding technology.’
99 percent recycled
This is confirmed by Jibbe van Meurs. As project manager he was involved in the project on behalf of FPI. ‘FPI manufactures all conceivable plastic products in a wide variety of shapes and sizes and for many applications,’ he explains. ‘We listen carefully to what the customer wants and then look at the technical feasibility. What was special in this case was that we produced the Eurocol bucket scraper for 99 percent from recycled plastic, known in technical terms as post-consumer recycled plastic. We had previously produced football cones from recycled plastic. The bucket scraper is something different for us again. Many of our plastic injection moulding products are technical housing components, for example to mount electronics in. It is nice to hear that the bucket scraper from Forbo Eurocol is well received.’
Also get the very last out of the bucket?
Ask your technical-commercial advisor about it.