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The Recycling Story

A wide range of materials can be recycled.

In addition to the list above your local recycling centre can take a wide range of materials including corrugated cardboard, plastic bottles, plastic bags, textiles, WEEE, fluorescent tubes, ink cartridges, batteries etc.

There are also a number of bring banks across the County where you can bring glass bottles and jars, drink cans and textiles.

What should you do with recycled material?

All material for recycling should be washed, lids taken off and squashed (if possible). If you are bringing material to a recycling centre make sure it is put into the correct container.

What happens once it is collected?

Paper and light cardboard

Newspaper, white paper, mixed paper, cardboard, and telephone books can be recycled. The process for creating new products from recycled paper is simple.

• The paper is separated by type/grade. The separated paper is then put into a large vat and mixed with water to create a slurry.
• The slurry is spread on racks and big rollers push all the water out. Once dry, the paper is then rolled up for cutting.
• The slurry is also the basis for paperboard (used for cereal boxes, etc.), corrugated cardboard, telephone books and newsprint.
• By adding wood or cotton fibres the slurry is turned into office grade paper.

Unlike glass or steel, paper degrades each time it is recycled. For this reason, not all recycled paper goes directly to manufacturers to make more paper. Some of it is used to create insulation, animal bedding or is used as a source of carbon in composting.

Click here for a link to the Green Bin website for further information.

Download a paper and cardboard recycling poster below.

Glass

Glass recycling focuses on container glass (e.g. glass bottles and jars). Glass manufacturers regularly use recycled glass in the production of new containers with percentages of recylced material ranging from 7%-50%, depending on the manufacturer. The process is as follows:

• Glass is crushed into a cullet. The cullet is shipped to a manufacturer who melts it and mixes it with “virgin” material to make new containers.

It is very important to separate your glass at your bring bank or local recycling centre. Materials such as ceramics, pyrex, windows and mirrors contaminiate the entire load and render it unusable.

Download a glass recycling poster below.

Metal Containers

Metal containers can be made from recycled steel or aluminium. Recycling metals containers is environmentally friendly and easy.

• Aluminium and steel cans are separated at source in your local recylcing centre or at a Material Recovery Facility (MRF).
• The separated cans are crushed and baled together.
• The cans are exposed to high heat and melted down. The resulting material is used to make more products from steel or aluminium.

Download a steel and aluminium recycling poster below.

Plastic Bottles and Packaging

  • Once the baled plastic has arrived at its destination it is washed and chopped into flakes.
  • If mixed plastics are being recycled, they are sorted in a flotation tank, where some types of plastic sink and others float.
  • The plastic flakes are dried and  fed into an extruder, where heat and pressure melt the plastic. 
  • The molten plastic is forced through a fine screen to remove any contaminants and is then formed into strands.
  • The strands are cooled in water, then chopped into pellets.

Manufacturing companies buy the plastic pellets to make new products such as flowerpots, lumber, and carpeting.

Download a plastic recycling poster below.

Milk / Juice Cardboard Cartons

Tetra-pak beverage cartons consist of three main materials:
• Paperboard (typically 70-90%)
• Low Density Poly Ethylene (typically 10-25%)
• Aluminium foil (about 5%, only in long life or aseptic packages)

Despite this mixture of different materials, cartons can be recycled. The carton recycling process is essentially quite simple. Baled cartons are dropped into a pulper, similar to a giant domestic food mixer, filled with water, and pulped for around 20 minutes. This delaminates the packaging, breaking down the package to produce a grey-brown slurry. The aluminium foil and LDPE are separated from the fibre, which is recovered to make new paper products.

The recovered fibre is used to manufacture new high-strength products such as paper carrier bags and envelopes.

The non-fibre remainder, mainly LDPE and a smaller amount of aluminium, have been used in a number of applications including garden furniture, playground design and roofing materials.

Download a tetra-pak carton poster below.