JOHN ROSENFELDER

JOHN ROSEFELDER (Stainless Rainwater Tanks Pty Ltd) Brisbane


Currently there is no way to recycle the spent plastic and this may create a real environmental problem when all the plastic tanks will start to fail in the years to come" (http://www.stainlessrainwatertanks.com/. Questions and answers)


The following is an email sent to me 10 July 2008 by John Rosenfelder who manufactures stainless steel tanks and has done a lot of research into various types of tanks which can be found on his website www.stainlessrainwatertanks.com.



Unfortunately your statement that “manufacturers state that tanks are recyclable” cannot be substantiated.

For such a statement to have any value concise information would be required. Example Mr..... from Poly World, in his position as Managing Director declared on the (date) that tanks manufactured from polyethylene after expire of their service life can be recycle in following manner........... with the end product being used as...........

I would welcome if you could supply such information and I change my website accordingly. Any other statement is meaningless and purely a marketing tool

I am in close contact with (name removed) one of the largest poly tank manufacturer in Australia. My question to him regarding recycling is always answered in a very coy and political way. Essentially nobody in this industry would address the issue that poly tanks are actually failing already, many well before there warranty expires. Therefore if nobody acknowledges this problem in the first place, there is no need to discuss recycling!!!!!

I am not a scientist, but my common sense and every day experience tells me that there is a real issue with recycling spent poly. This statement is based on following reasoning:

1)“spent” poly is a product where the polymers, which give poly the elasticity and strength are destroyed by the exposure to UV rays. To the best of my knowledge there is no technology available to reverse this process.

2) We replaced numerous split and cracked poly tanks, and the shells just remain in the field, some for years. Refuse dumps do not accept them ( here in Brisbane anyway). If there would be any value in this piles of twisted plastic, somebody surely would be happy to accept them.

3) The shell of the black poly tank, shown in my website, resting on a vacant block of land about 4km from the Brisbane CBD for the last 4 years. Well within walking distance of some metal recyclers. If there would be any value at all in this heap of plastic, it would have disappeared years ago.

4)If you take a drive through the country side around Brisbane, towards Gatton you see numerous failed tank just laying in the fields, one of them is actually recycled. It has been spilt in halve and is used as a goat house.

5) If you visit Bunnings you will find garden edging made from recycled plastic, but not poly