Tubex Tree Shelter Collection and Recycling Programme

All Tubex tree shelters can be added to the collection bags. All that we ask is that you remove the nylon zip ties and the wooden stake. We cannot accept competitor tubes and the sack will be refused if these are found in the dumpy sacks. This is due to the fact that we do not know which polymers are used in these products and they could have very negative impacts at the recycling plant (PVC for example).

We tried to build a simple but effective process to collect the used tree shelters, to offer the best solution to Tubex customers and end-users. This process consists in 5 steps:

1. Place your regular tree-shelters order, and set them up as usual. To participate in the Tubex Collection Program you will need dedicated bulky sacks for the collection of the tree shelters. You can now place an order for bulk sacks as well; how
2. Once the tree is ready, remove the tree shelter and fill the dedicated bulk sacks with the used Tubex tree shelters, once the bag is full please advice us so we can pick it up for you.
3. Tubex will collect the sacks and take them back to the distributor’s store. Once we full lorry load of tubes in bulky bags, Tubex will organise transport and collection from distributor, and take the tubes to the recycling plant.
4. Once at the recycling plant, the tubes will be washed and clean out and afterwards recycled into PP pellets.
5. Recycled PP pellets are going to be re-used in Tubex products or to other Berry Business

The programme is currently only available in the UK

The minimum order quantity is currently 12 bulk bags, each bag can hold about 350 standard Tubex tree shelters, each sack needs to be full for Tubex to collect those. (MOQ is therefore approximately 4,200 standard 1.2m long Tree shelters)​

The Tubex Tree Shelter collection program is an initiative of Tubex, a brand of Berry Global, which aims to address the issues of plastic waste; the objective of this programme is to offer a simple and effective solution to our stakeholders that allows closing the loop and ensuring a responsible disposable of our products.

The programme is based on the collection of used tree shelters, we will provide dumpy sacks that once full of used tubes will be collected and transferred to a recycling plant, where they will be washed and afterwards recycled into PP pellets. Then the PP pellets will be re-used in Tubex products or other Berry business.

The programme is currently only available in the UK.

The Tubex tree shelter collection program will be available from Autumn 2020. Currently is only available in the UK

Any Tubex distributor or end-user, in the UK, can be part of the program. To be able to join please contact your sales representative or send an email to sales@tubex.com, and place your order for the required number of dumpy sacks.

Each customer is responsible to collect their tubes and fill the dedicated bulky sacks with them. Once the sacks are full, Tubex will collect and then store them in distributor’s warehouse.  Tubex will collect and transport the sacks to the recycling plant.

Tubex is responsible to organise collection and transport from customer’s store to distributor’s warehouse, and afterwards to the recycling plant.

You should only use dedicated Tubex dumpy sacks, it helps Tubex calculate the quantity of material available for recycling. These sacks come with the collection program logo on it. You can place your order of the required bulky sacks via one of the 4 distributors signed up to the recycling scheme

Once the used tubes are at the recycling plant, the tubes will be clean up and transformed into PP pellets. Tubex will collect those and use for the fabrication of new tree shelters or send to another Berry business, who will use the PP pellets as raw material for its manufacturing.

The Tubex standard tree shelters already contain up to 30% of recycled polymer and the Tubex netting up to 85%. Our objective is that Tubex Standard tree shelters will be manufactured with 100% recycled content as soon as we have enough availability of recycled PP

The sacks of tubes are then compressed into much tighter bails to ensure we can make the process as efficient as possible. They product is washed, shredded, dried and then processed into rPP pellets.

The tree shelters are high grade recyclate and even after 8-10 years in the field nearly all of the tree shelter will turn into finished rPP polymer.

35-60kg depending upon the type of Tubex product and how efficiently they are filled.​

Generally we anticipate the collection scheme will run during the summer months (April to September) outside of the tree planting season.