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All the recycling we collect from goes to a Greenstar Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) for sorting whilst the food waste goes to be composted. 

Wherever possible all materials will stay in the UK to be reprocessed and go towards making new products:

Paper and card is sorted into its various grades and is cleansed and mulched before being used to make new products such as newsprint for daily newspapers.

Glass bottle and jars are cleaned and made into fine glass sand which is used to make new glass bottles and jars, fibreglass, concrete and ‘asphalt’ for road surfacing.

Tins and cans, aerosols and foil – aluminium is reprocessed into new cans (as soon as six weeks after you recycle them!).  Steel is used to make new products such as cans and car parts.

Plastic bottles are ’flaked’ and reprocessed back into new milk bottles.

Household plastic packaging is separated into its different polymers and made into various products such as food trays, clothing fibre and piping.

Food and drinks cartons (Tetra paks) are mulched down and the different materials are separated. The paperboard (which makes up about 80%) is used to make new paper products, the remaining plastic and aluminium can then be used in furniture, to generate energy or even separated out into pure aluminium and paraffin.

Food waste is taken to a special contained processing plant where it is made into compost to be used as fertilizer for restoring old landfill or industrial sites.  The energy produced can also be used to provide electricity.

Garden waste is shredded and composted in the open air with the end product being used on local agricultural land as a compost/soil conditioner.

   
Why is recycling so important?

Recycling Conserves Resources:

When we recycle, used materials are converted into new products, reducing the need to consume natural resources. If used materials are not recycled, new products are made by extracting fresh, raw material from the Earth, through mining and forestry.

Recycling helps conserve important raw materials and protects natural habitats for the future.

  
Recycling saves energy:

Using recycled materials in the manufacturing process uses considerably less energy than that required for producing new products from raw materials – even when comparing all associated costs including transport etc.

Plus there are extra energy savings because more energy is required to extract, refine, transport and process raw materials ready for industry compared with providing industry-ready materials.

    
Recycling helps protect the environment:

Recycling reduces the need for extracting (mining, quarrying and logging), refining and processing raw materials all of which create substantial air and water pollution.

As recycling saves energy it also reduces greenhouse gas emissions, which helps to tackle climate change. Current UK recycling is estimated to save more than 18 million tonnes of C02 a year – the equivalent to taking 5 million cars off the road.

   
Recycling reduces landfill:

When we recycle, recyclable materials are reprocessed into new products, and as a result the amount of rubbish sent to landfill sites reduces. This helps to reduce our emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.

  
Fun facts about recycling

• up to 80% of what we throw away can be recycled.
• recycling one aluminium can saves enough energy to power your TV for three hours
• around 14 million glass bottles and jars are sent to landfill in the UK every day
• glass can be recycled again and again – containers made from recycled glass are of the same high quality as those made from new raw materials
• for every tonne of recycled newspaper, we save 17 trees
• it can take just seven days for old magazines and newspapers to be recycled into new ones
• recycling just one plastic bottle saves enough energy to power a 60W lightbulb for six hours