Motorcycle helmets are, by design, tough objects made to resist impacts and damage. They’re also made from a mix of materials: various plastics, fibreglass, Kevlar/carbon fibre materials with epoxy resins, metal, polystyrene and fabric. All of this makes them impossible to recycle easily, meaning most old lids end up in landfill, or incinerated, neither of which is ideal to even the least green mind.
But now, Italian firm Dainese has announced a new scheme called Life Impacto that aims to create a new recycling process for helmets and to reformulate the materials and manufacturing processes to make recycling easier. The project is being rolled out by a consortium of five Italian companies: Dainese Group as coordinator; Innovando, a specialist in reverse logistics; Re-sport, a spin-off from the University of Bologna which is focused on innovative technologies for recycling composite sports equipment; and Misitano & Stracuzzi, suppliers of bio-based solvents extracted from citrus fruit waste; plus the University of Bologna.
Life Impacto is based on an innovative helmet processing plant which separates different plastic materials using bio-based solvents from food industry waste. This means that key plastic materials can be recovered and reused: as an example, the firm says that from 5000 recycled helmets, it can recover 3700kg of ABS, 1056kg of EPS and more than 600kg of PC. This gives significant help to the environment, with a 60% reduction in CO2 emissions, a 60% reduction in electricity consumption, and a 50% reduction in water consumption, as well as a reduction in costs over the long term.
The project’s ultimate goal is to introduce a homologated, environmentally sustainable helmet design, which will be optimised for even easier and cleaner recycling while providing the same, or better, safety performance.