What happens to my recycling and garden waste?

When you place your green recycling bin out for collection with all the recyclable materials in it you have separated, do you know what happens to the materials?? Here's is a guide to what happens to the materials.

 

All the recyclables placed in your green wheeled bin are taken to the Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) in the city, where they are sorted into the different material types.  From the facility the materials are made into new products.

 

 

 

 

Sent to the paper mill and shredded, pulped and recycled back into paper.

 

Did you know?...... Paper can be recycled up to six times before the tiny fibres it is made from get too short to hold it together and paper can be used for high quality road surfaces and race tracks.

 

 

 

Sent to a reprocessing plant and are washed, flaked, melted and re-moulded into new products such as wheeled bins and clothing. 

 

Did you know?.....recycling just one plastic bottle saves enough energy to power a 60W light bulb for six hours.  Duvet filling is made from plastic bottles...so every night you go to sleep and pull your duvet over yourself, you're really laying under plastic bottles!

 

 

 

 

Washed, smelted down and remoulded into tins, cans and aerosols.

 

Did you know?....Every steel can is 100% recyclable.   It can be recycled over and over again forever and can be used to make planes, trains and cars!

 

Tours of the Materials Recycling Facility are available, for more information please contact Environmental Management Helpdesk on 01733 747474.

 

 

When you place your garden waste in your brown recycling bin out for collection the material is taken to the composting facilities at Dogsthorpe and Crowland and composted over a period of 12-16 weeks.  Here the material is shredded and formed into large rows called 'windrows' for composting.

 

Composting is a biological process in which micro-organisms convert biodegradable organic matter into carbon dioxide and water vapour, using oxygen in the air, and leave a bulk reduced, stabilised residue known as compost.  The windrows are turned regularly to ensure an even mixture, to provide aeration and to control temperature and moisture. Once the process is complete, the composted waste is bagged up and sold as a soil conditioner which can be purchased at the Householders Recycling Centre at Dogsthorpe.