There once was a small paperclip called Pippa. Pippa worked hard, keeping pieces of paper together, but in her head she had BIG dreams...
Pippa dreamt of being something else altogether. Something shiny and new and even more useful than a paperclip... She dreamt the dream of every tin can, every piece of paper and every carton... She dreamt that she would be recycled!
And one day it happened. Pippa's owner tried to use Pippa for a particularly large bundle of papers and... CALAMITY. Pippa was bent beyond use! Her owner, being a caring type who wanted to protect the environment, gently put Pippa in the recycling box with the tin cans. Pippa was very excited, she knew her adventures were just beginning.
The very next day Pippa and her can friends were collected by the recycling van. "Where are we going?" "What will we become?" they murmured excitedly to each other. A tomato soup can, called Tommy, who had been through the process several times before, said "Don't worry friends, soon we'll be sorted! And then of course we’ll be squashed and sent to the processor! After that the fun really begins and we go for the big melt down - it's like taking a hot bath! Then, after we're cooled as slabs or ingots of steel, off we go to a factory to be made into something shiny and new. It's really exciting! Before I was a tin can, I was a car, and before that a fridge - that was cool!"
Pippa was nervous as she lay on the conveyor belt of the sorting machine. The large magnet was nearly above her - would she have enough steel in her to be chosen? She didn't have to wait long. Within a second of it appearing above her, she was plucked up off the belt by the magnet. She was delighted and couldn't wait to get to the crusher... it really was such fun to be squashed up against all the other steel cans and things in a big steel bale! They all waited excitedly for the truck from Sunberg, which was taking them to the re-processor - Pippa was very much looking forward to her hot bath.
They arrived very soon and then it really was bath time.... Pippa loved being melted and slopping around as a liquid. She wished she could stay there all day! But, quite quickly she was poured into a mould and she slowly set into a beautiful, steel ingot. As she was setting she was wondering what she would become... "a machine would be great, as it's good to make new things and I love being useful" she thought to herself. As her ingot was made ready to be transported she pondered "would it be better to be part of a car or a kettle? One is so fast... but the other is hot!"
Soon the truck from Sunberg was ready to take Pippa to her next destination. It took her to the port and she was loaded into a container. "Where am I going?, how will I get to the factory?" she worried. Luckily the team from Sunberg sorted it all out for her and before she knew it, she'd been loaded onto the boat and was off. "This is the life" she thought, the ocean breeze wafting through the container. She arrived at last in India and was transported to the factory. And here her excitement levels peaked... she would finally find out what she would become!
Pippa closed her eyes as the processing began. When she finally opened them she was delighted. She had been transformed into a shiny, new bicycle!! She couldn't wait to meet her new owner and go for lots of rides. And she also knew that when she eventually stopped working she'd be able to be recycled again and again and again!
