What happens to my recycling?
Plastics
Plastic is taken to Cumbria Waste Recycling at Kingmoor in
Carlisle where it is squashed and bailed using very strong wire and
then wrapped in plastic ready for collection by the purchaser.
Plastics are sent to a re-processor where they are sorted,
ground into flakes, washed, dried and made into pellets ready for
reuse. The plastics are recycled at various locations, including
Cheshire. Plastics are recycled into different products depending
on type.
- High-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic milk bottles are
made into watering cans.
- Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) pop bottles are made into a
whole range of products including work wear, carpets, fleeces (it
takes 25 bottles to make a fleece jumper), garden furniture and
sleeping bag stuffing.
Cardboard and Paper
Cardboard
from Green bags and cardboard and paper from recycling banks is
taken to Cumbria Waste Recycling at Kingmoor in Carlisle where it
is sorted and bailed up ready for reprocessing. Paper
from your Greenbox is collected and taken to the FOCSA depot in
Carlisle for selling to re-processors. The process
is similar for cardboard and paper, which includes adding water to
pulp and then press the fibres into new sheets. It can take
as little as 28 days for your recycled newspaper to be born
again!
Glass
Glass can be recycled again and
again and by recycling it you are saving new materials from being
quarried. Glass is collected from recycling banks or
Greenboxes and taken to British Glass in Alloa, Scotland for
reprocessing. It is washed and broken up pieces (called
cullet). At this stage it can be processed into a number of
products, added to tarmac or melted and remoulded into new glass
bottles or jars.
Tins and cans
Empty tin and cans are collected from
Greenboxes and recycling banks, taken to the depot and sorted
using a magnet to separate steel from
aluminium.
They are then crushed and baled to save space when
transporting to the reprocessing factory. The bales are melted down
at high temperatures and the liquid metal is reshaped
into new products ready for purchase again. Aluminium can be
recycled again and again and could end up in products such as a
bicycle, a car or just made into another tin can! Steel food
cans are usually reprocessed into steel sheets that are pressed and
made into new products, such as girders for the building trade.
You don't need to remove labels from
tin cans to recycle them but they do need to be quickly rinsed out
please!
Garden Waste
Garden waste from your green wheeled bins is collected and taken
to our special composting site at Hespin Wood. It is shredded
and turned many times to produce a fine compost that is sold
wholesale to DIY stores.