Gumdrop: used chewing gum as an alternative to plastic and rubber
Gumdrop Ltd, founded in 2009 to tackle the global problem of chewing gum litter, is the first company in the world to recycle and process chewing gum into a range of new compounds that can be used in the rubber and plastics industry. As chewing gum is made of polysobutylene (also used for inner tubes of bycicle wheels), which is obtained from petrochemicals, there is scope to recycle it.
Gumdrop Ltd recycles pre and post consumption gum into Gum-tec®. They make bright pink bins from this known as Gumdrops and Gumdrops on-the-go which are designed specifically for the disposal of waste chewing gum. Once full, the whole Gumdrop along with its contents of waste gum is recycled into new Gum-tec®.
Gumdrop Ltd collaborates with manufacturers and companies globally to manufacture products ranging from Wellington boots to mobile phone covers, stationery and so on from recycled and processed chewing gum.
For more information about the Gumdrop process, view the video below:
Collecting chewing gum litter and recycling this into new compounds for the plastics and rubber industry yields large environmental and economic savings:
- while chewing gum is very cheap, removing it is expensive and a significant budget for local authorities,
- when Gumdrops were first launched in 2011, they reduced gum litter by 46% in the first 12 weeks,
- when the British Library installed Gumdrops on its premises, they saved around GBP 7 500 a year on cleaning bills.
Recycling and processing chewing gum:
- reduces the amount of oil used in plastics production,
- saves money,
- cleans up our streets and
- goes towards corporate social responsible goals.