Many residents are keen to find out how their waste materials are recycled. So here's our guide to what happens to your recyclable materials and what they can be turned into.
Green boxes (glass, cans, tins, household batteries)
Glass
Labels, metals and other contamination are removed. The glass is crushed into small pieces to form cullet which is mixed with sand, soda ash, and limestone. It is put into a furnace and melted at 1,500 degrees centigrade. The hot glass is shaped in moulds and then cooled.
Recycled glass products include new jars, bottles, tiles, marbles, jewellery and fiberglass insulation.
Aluminium cans
Cans are flattened and shredded into small pieces. Hot air (500°C) removes any decoration and the shreds are melted in a furnace. The molten metal flows into moulds to form ingots - each contains enough metal to make 1.5 million new cans.
Aluminum cans may be turned into new cans, window frames, foil or car parts
Steel/tin cans
Cans are melted down in a furnace with other grades of scrap metal and liquid iron and turned into new steel.
Steel cans are made into a wide range of products such as new food cans, cars, car parts, bicycles and paper clips.
For every tonne of glass, cans, paper and textiles collected in North Lincolnshire, Palm Recycling, the council's waste contractor, donates £1 to a local charity. Over the last few years, donations have been made to local charities, including Magic Moments, Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, Daisy Lincs, St Andrew's Childrens Hospice, Lindsey Lodge Hospice and the Kids CAP Club.
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Paper is taken to the Palm Paper mill at Kings Lynn. The paper is mixed with warm water and chemicals to turn it into pulp. Ink and materials such as paper clips, are removed from the pulp. The paper is pressed to remove water and to form a strong interlocked mat. The paper is ironed out through big tubes and wound into large rolls. The rolls of recycled paper are cut and wrapped before being cut to size.
Recycled paper from North Lincolnshire is turned back into new newspapers. It can take just seven days to recycle an old newspaper into a new one.
For every tonne of glass, cans, paper and textiles collected in North Lincolnshire, Palm Recycling, the council's waste contractor, donates £1 to a local charity. Over the last few years, donations have been made to local charities, including Magic Moments, Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, Daisy Lincs, St Andrew's Childrens Hospice, Lindsey Lodge Hospice and the Kids CAP Club.
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Textile bag (mixed textiles and clothes)
Textile bags are collected from the kerbside with your blue and green boxes. The textiles collected through this scheme help disadvantaged people in the UK by providing clothes for those most in need. Some of the textiles collected are also exported abroad, mainly to developing countries and Eastern Europe. The second hand clothing trade supports thousands of livelihoods by providing jobs in trading, distribution, repairing and restyling. Many people in other countries are unable to afford new clothing and rely on the recycling scheme to provide affordable garments.
For every tonne of glass, cans, paper and textiles collected in North Lincolnshire, Palm Recycling, the council's waste contractor, donates £1 to a local charity. Over the last few years, donations have been made to local charities, including Magic Moments, Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, Daisy Lincs, St Andrew's Childrens Hospice, Lindsey Lodge Hospice and the Kids CAP Club.
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Plastics and cardboard collected from the kerbside are first taken to Midland Road depot in Scunthorpe where they are separated for processing. Plastics are then sent to Rochdale and cardboard taken to Leicester for recycling.
Plastics
Plastics are sorted by colour and type, and contaminants like labels are removed. The plastic is granulated, heated and moulded into another product. The different types of plastics recycled in North Lincolnshire can return as pop, shampoo or detergent bottles, carpet fibres, drain pipes, clothing, fleece jackets, luggage, traffic cones, toys, flower pots and recycling boxes.
Cardboard
In a similar way to the newspaper process, cardboard is mixed with water (pulped) and contaminants are removed. It is pressed into sheets and dried and recycled into new boxes, packaging or insulation.
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Brown bin contents are taken to the Brier Hills composting plant near Doncaster. The garden waste is shredded and composted using an open air windrow method. During the windrow phase the moisture and temperatures within the windrows are closely monitored to ensure that good composting conditions and sanitisation of the material is maintained. After just eight to 10 weeks the waste becomes high quality compost.
Once the composting process is complete the material is then passed through a screener to separate out the required grade size. The compost is then used as a soil improver for agriculture, land regeneration and landscaping.
Residents can purchase bulk orders of compost from Brier Hills plant. Please contact Brier Hills Recycling Ltd directly on 01405 818877 for more information regarding cost and opening times.
You can also buy 40 litre bags of peat free compost made from composted garden waste at the household recycling centres across North Lincolnshire. Please see our household recycling centre page for more details on price.
The small electrical items collected at the kerbside are recycled by Sims Group Ltd in Stalybridge. The electrical appliances pass through a hammer mill which smashes them up into small fragments. These fragments are passed along a conveyor where electro magnets are used to separate out the ferrous metals.
The remaining non-ferrous metals and non-metallic fragments then pass over a second magnet and onto an eddy current separator to remove the aluminium content and other metals.
The non-metallic, mainly plastic fragments fall into a container where they are collected up and transported to a plastic recycling company for further processing.
At various stages on both the ferrous and non-ferrous conveyors, manual picking stations are used to separate out materials such as batteries and copper.
All the electrical items collected by North Lincolnshire Council are treated in facilities in the UK. Some of the recyclable materials recovered from these items are sent abroad to be made into new products. However, this is always closely regulated by the Environment Agency to ensure they are recycled in a safe and environmentally sound manner. Anything that requires disposal or incineration remains in the UK.
If you have a garden you could also make your own compost at home.
What can you compost at home?
- Raw fruit and vegetables
- Used tea bags/leaves and coffee grounds
- Egg shells
- Grass cuttings
- Stable manure and bedding
- Weeds (avoid persistent weeds)
- Sawdust/wood ash (untreated wood only)
- Shredded paper and torn cardboard, egg boxes etc
- Dead flowers
- Hedge prunings
- Fallen leaves.
What are the benefits of home composting?
- Protects the environment by cutting the amount of waste going to landfill and the need for garden fires
- Replaces peat products which are taken from important wildlife sites
- Provides an excellent soil conditioner, adding organic matter and nutrients to improve poor soils
- Helps maintain healthy plant growth
- Reduces the need to transport waste
- Saves money on shop bought composts.
In a bid to encourage more people to recycle their garden waste, the council has teamed up with Straight plc to offer residents home compost bins. Please visit our home composting page for more information.