Frequently
Asked Questions, Interesting Facts
& Information
Recycling - Interesting Facts & Information
General Recycling
Metal Recycling
Glass Recycling
Paper Recycling
Textiles Recycling
Plastic Recycling
Green Waste Recycling
The Glass Mountain Myth
Myth - Plastic is Exported to China and Dumped in a Landfill
Made From Recycled Plastic
Plastics The Bigger Picture - Sustainability, Environmental impact
Useful sources of Information
Start Recycling at Work
Start Recycling at School
South Molton Recycle FAQs
Who are South Molton Recycle and what do we do?
Why can't you recycle all plastics on the kerbside collection?
Why do I have to take bottle tops off?
Why do I have to wash out the recyclables?
What is the difference between Source Separated and Co-mingled collections?
Why don't you accept wet paper?
Useful Tips
How should we present our recyclables for collection?
Recycling - Interesting Facts & Information
Intro
* in just seven days, your paper could come back as another newspaper
* in just six weeks your metal can could be recycled and used as
part of a fridge, a car, a plane... or simply another metal can!
* your glass bottles could be recycled into house insulation, and
* plastic bottles could be made into a cosy fleece jacket!
* The UK produces more than 434 million tonnes of waste every year.
This rate of rubbish generation would fill the Albert Hall in London
in less than 2 hours.
General Recycling
* Each UK household produces over 1 tonne of rubbish annually, amounting
to about 31 million tonnes for the UK each year
* Every year, the average dustbin contains enough unrealised energy
for 500 baths, 3500 showers or 5,000 hours of television.
* On average every person in the UK throws away their own body weight
in rubbish every 7 weeks
* Every 8 months the UK produces enough waste to fill Lake Windermere
(the largest lake in England)
* The cost of managing the municipal waste produced in England is
around £1.6 billion per year
Metal Recycling
Aluminium
* If all the aluminium drinks cans sold in the UK were recycled,
there would be 14 million fewer full dustbins per year
* In the UK, 75% of all drinks cans are made of aluminium.
* It's better news in industry - larger aluminium products, used
in buildings and vehicles for example, have a 95% recycling rate.
That's simply because they're more valuable.
* Amazingly, recycling it requires only 5% of the energy it takes
to make new aluminium - and produces only 5% of the CO2 emissions.
* Just one recycled aluminium can saves enough energy to run a television
set for three hours!
Steel
* In industry, steel recycling is common - 'home scrap' generated
by the steel manufacturing process is re-melted and used over and
over again. It never leaves the mill, refinery or foundry.
* In the UK we use around 12.5 billion steel cans every year, or
600 per household, but nearly 10 billion of these still go to landfill.
* In 2005 we recycled around 50% of steel packaging including over
2.5 billion steel cans! The government target is to increase that
to 54% by 2008.
* Producing steel from recycled material saves 75% of the energy
needed for steel made from virgin material
* Every steel can is 100% recyclable. It can be recycled over and
over again into products like bicycles and of course new cans
Glass Recycling
* The largest glass furnaces produce more than 400 tonnes - that's
more than one million bottles and jars - each day!
* Glass can be recycled again and again without losing its clarity
or purity
* Milk bottles are reused an average of 13 times before recycling
* We use around 2.4 million tonnes of container glass in the UK every
year.
* In 2005 we recycled approximately 1.2 million tonnes of used glass
(known as 'cullet').
* Making glass bottles and jars from recycled ones saves energy.
The energy saving from recycling one bottle will:
- Power a 100 watt light bulb for almost an hour
- Power a computer for 20 minutes
- Power a colour TV for 15 minutes
- Power a washing machine for 10 minutes
* Probably the most important thing about recycling glass is the energy saving
- when using recycled glass to make new containers, 315Kg of CO2 is saved for
every tonne of recycled glass used.
Paper Recycling
* On average, each person in the UK uses over 200 kg of paper per
year. 66 % of this is collected for recycling
* We use 12.5 million tonnes of paper and cardboard every year in
the UK
* Over Christmas as much as 83 km2 of wrapping paper will end up
in UK rubbish bins, enough to cover an area larger than Guernsey
* About one fifth of the contents of household dustbins consist of
paper and card, of which nearly half is newspapers and magazines.
This is equivalent to over 4kg of waste paper and card per household
in the UK each week
* Recycled paper made up 80.6% of the raw materials for UK newspapers
by the end of 2006
Textiles Recycling
* Present clothes banks are only operating at about 25% capacity
Plastic Recycling
* Recycling just one plastic bottle saves enough energy to power
a 60W light bulb for six hours
* It takes just 25 two litre pop bottles to make one adult size fleece
jacket
* 13 billion plastic carrier bags are used in the UK each year.
Green Waste Recycling
* Every tonne of biodegradable waste produces 300-500 cubic metres
of landfill gas
* Landfill sites released a significant percentage of the UK's methane
emissions.
The Glass Mountain Myth
So, is there a glass mountain??? What is the "glass mountain"?
It's a reference to the imbalance in the supply of glass to recycle,
compared to the demand for recycled glass and products made from
it.
Glass is perfect for recycling - you can recycle it back into new
bottles and jars over and over again, without its clarity deteriorating.
And glass products can use up to 90% recycled material.
Is there a problem with recycling glass?
A major barrier to recycling glass in the UK is the shortage of clear
'cullet' (the term for waste glass) available.
We produce plenty of clear glass in the UK, but export a lot of it
as bottles for spirits. We just don't recycle enough clear glass.
By comparison, we import a large amount of green glass, principally
as wine bottles but do manage to recycle it. In fact the green bottles
we make in the UK contain at least 85% recycled green glass.
So we need to send more clear glass to be recycled, rather than to
landfill.
How much glass do we use and recycle?
We use around 2.5 million tonnes of container glass in the UK. Around
629,000 tonnes of that may be imported.
In 2005 we recycled 1,259,000 tonnes of cullet. So there's still
some way to go.
There's still work to do in the business sector too - pubs throw
away 600,000 tonnes of glass every year. And most of that is currently
going to landfill.
How is recycled glass used?
There are both fairly standard and quite unusual uses for recycled
glass.
* New bottles and jars either at home or abroad
* 'Processed sand' - finely ground glass for filtration media or
golf bunkers
* In construction products such as bricks and concrete blocks
So the future is pretty bright for recycled glass products - just
as long as we keep recycling to meet the increasing demand.
Myth - Plastic is Exported to China and Dumped in a Landfill
Plastic and other material does go to China and other countries,
but it's not just dumped there - people are buying it to use!
Exports of waste material is big business.
Plastics for recycling are regularly bought in the UK and elsewhere
for export to China. A tonnes of plastic bottles for recycling can
fetch around £200 so it would make no economic sense to ship
it half the way round the world to then simply dump it.
In 2001, 66,813 tonnes of plastic were exported. This rose to 237,753
tonnes in 2005. Over half of the UK's plastics recycling is done
via export.
Why is recyclable waste going abroad?
China in particular has fast-growing manufacturing sectors - and
'secondary resources' like recyclable paper and plastics are in high
demand there.
* In 2004, 173,947 tonnes of plastic packaging were exported, the
majority to Hong Kong and China, and 170,370 tonnes were reprocessed
in the UK.
* China is now a major manufacturer of plastic items. Therefore,
if we want recycled plastics to be used again, it is inevitable that
at least a proportion of our waste plastics will be exported to China
to be reused.
* Don't forget, the UK has a huge economy and rate of consumption
for its size, and we're still very much in the early stages of our
plans for recycling.
There is currently a trade imbalance between the UK and China and
so we import much more than we export.
Isn't it a waste of energy to ship recyclable material abroad?
The ships that bring these imports from China would go back empty
if they were not used to take secondary materials back to China..
So, all recyclable materials that are exported to countries like
India and China are shipped from the UK on otherwise empty container
ships.
How can you be sure it's all above board?
The trade is robustly regulated by the Environment Agency.
Problems/Issues
Technically, almost all plastics can be recycled.
Collection, infrastructure and low market demand are barriers to
the recycling of some types of plastics.
Yogurt pots, for example are usually made from polystyrene or a blend
of different polymer types. These have a very different structure
and composition to the PET, HDPE and PVC plastics used for bottles.
Applications and market demand for these plastics, particularly mixed
plastics, are currently limited. Collection and storage also poses
problems. Due to the volume of plastic (it takes approximately 20,000
2 litre milk bottles to make a tonne) it is difficult to collect
(room on collection vehicle) and store whilst awaiting preparation
for onward shipping to the reprocessors.
The Different Types
What do they all mean?
To make sorting and thus recycling easier, the American Society of
Plastics Industry developed a standard marking code to help consumers
identify and sort the main types of plastic.
These types and their most common uses are:
PET
Polyethylene terephthalate - Fizzy drink bottles and oven-ready meal
trays
HDPE
High-density polyethylene - Bottles for milk and washing-up liquids.
PVC
Polyvinyl chloride - Food trays, cling film, bottles for squash,
mineral water and shampoo
LDPE
Low density polyethylene - Carrier bags and bin liners.
PP
Polypropylene - Margarine tubs, microwaveable meal trays.
PS
Polystyrene - Yoghurt pots, foam meat or fish trays, hamburger boxes
and egg cartons, vending cups, plastic cutlery, protective packaging
for electronic goods and toys
OTHER
Any other plastics that do not fall into any of the above categories.
An example is melamine, which is often used in plastic plates and
cups.
Made From Recycled Plastic
Exciting end uses
There is a wide range of products made from recycled plastic
* polyethylene bin liners and carrier bags
* plastic bottles
* flooring and window frames
* building insulation board
* video and compact disc cassette cases
* fencing and garden furniture
* water butts, garden sheds and composters
* seed trays
* fleeces
* fibre filling for sleeping bags and duvets
* and a variety of office accessories
Bigger Picture - Sustainability, Environmental impact
The production and use of plastics has a range of environmental impacts.
Fossil Fuels
Plastics manufacture requires significant quantities of resources,
primarily fossil fuels, both as a raw material and to deliver energy
for the manufacturing process.
It also requires other resources such as land and water, and produces
waste and emissions.
The overall environmental impact varies according to the type of
plastic and the production method employed.
A report on the production of carrier bags made from recycled rather
than virgin polythene concluded that the use of recycled plastic
resulted in the following environmental benefits:
* reduction of energy consumption by two thirds
* production of only a third of the sulphur dioxide and half of the
nitrous oxide
* reduction of water usage by nearly 90%
* reduction of carbon dioxide generation by two-and-a-half times
(source: Waste Watch)
Advantages of recycling plastics
* Conservation of non-renewable fossil fuels - plastic production
uses 8% of the world's oil production, 4% as feedstock and 4% during
manufacture
* Reduced consumption of energy
* Reduced amounts of solid waste going to landfill
Reduced emissions of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide and sulphur dioxide
<as on site currently>
Useful sources of Information
* Don't Let Devon Go To Waste - www.recycledevon.org
* Community Recycling Network - www.crn.org.uk
* The Environment Agency - www.environment-agency.gov.uk
* www.letsrecycle.com
* WRAP - www.wrap.org.uk/home_garden_schools_and_communities/
Household Crushers
* Single Bottle & Can Crushers - www.plascancrusher.com
* OR Google search for Can Crusher
SMR's Reprocessors
* Glass - www.recresco.com/recycling/glass.ashx
* Paper - www.aylesford-newsprint.co.uk
* Cardboard - www.stregis.co.uk
* Plastic - www.recoup.org
* Steel Cans - www.corusgroup.com
* Aluminium Cans & Foil - www.novelisrecycling.co.uk
Start Recycling at Work
You can't afford not to!
Waste disposal costs can be up to 5% of your companies' annual turnover,
so more and more businesses are finding it pays to look at sustainable
ways of dealing with waste.
Usually at least 50% of your business waste can easily be recycled.
It needn't increase anyone's workload and there are many practical
ways to minimise waste and reduce environmental impact.
Think about the type of waste you produce at work and then look at
reducing it by reusing and recycling.
Mobile phones - Can be recycled to earn cash for charities:
* Oxfam - mobile phone collection from work
* Action Aid - has a freepost option
Computers and printer cartridges - Could be refurbished or have
the parts recycled:
* Oxfam - Recycling computers
* Environ
Stamps - why not set up a charity collection box at work?
* Guide Dogs - raise money to train guide dogs
* RSPB - recycled stamps support the 'Save the Albatross' appeal
* Help the Aged - help older people by recycling
Plastic cups - they're everywhere in vending machines, water dispensers,
etc...
* Get your own personal real mug, a cuppa always taste better that
way.
* Cut down on the number of cups you use, wherever possible.
Paper:
* Only print when you really need to
* Print double sided where possible
* Re-use scrap paper for notes
* Have a paper recycling bin right by your desk for easy separation
Start Recycling at School
What's in your bin?
Make a simple start. All schools produce paper and card waste and
there are easy steps to reducing that waste:
Paper
* use both sides of the paper;
* set up a separate bin for paper waste in the class room; and
* encourage your school to buy recycled paper products.
Drinks Cans
* set up a separate collection bin for drinks cans
Waste-free lunch challenge:
* A large percentage of the waste schools produce comes from all
the lunch that gets munched!
* Start the challenge to create as little rubbish from your lunch
as possible.
* Whoever makes the least waste is the winner!
Winning Potential:
The secret is to go for stuff that's RE-USABLE or RECYCLABLE:
* avoid taking your lunch to school in a plastic bag. Go for a re-usable
airtight container - a lunchbox or an old ice cream tub;
* take a flask or screw-top plastic bottle you can use again. Otherwise,
choose an aluminium can or glass bottle that can be recycled;
* don't wrap food in clingfilm. Go for aluminium foil, which can
be recycled when you've finished with it; and
* fruit and veg are really good for you - and the leftovers can be
composted at school or at home.
Don't forget to make the prize a big incentive for people to take
part - maybe some book vouchers or some cool recycled stationary.
Visit RecycleZone to find out more about setting up a waste-free
lunch challenge.
Want to learn more?
* Set up a waste action plan at your school, and
* Gain awards as an Eco School
* Your News - Three Valleys Water and the Lunchbox Challenge
* Your News - Slade Green Junior School, Bexley
South Molton Recycle FAQ:
Who are South Molton Recycle and what do we do?
We are a non profit distributing community business set up over 16
years ago to stop as much waste going to landfill as possible by
reducing, repairing, reusing and recycling as much as possible.
We conceived and still operate kerbside recycling for over 70,000
households in North Devon & Torridge every week. We operate
a Civic Amenity Recycling Centre in South Molton, have our own
reuse shop where we sell everything from Fridges and beds to ornaments
books and tea spoons and have a highly successful trade recycling
business. We work closely with the local community and wherever
possible we help disadvantaged people by offering them jobs and
work experience amongst our workforce.
Why can't you recycle all plastics on the kerbside collection?
Space and the Reprocessors is the easy answer - Plastic and particularly
plastic bottles are one of the most volumous materials in your
rubbish, so it is difficult to get a vehicle large enough to collect
all the different types using a source separated collection, if
everyone crushed their bottles it would make it a lot easier and
more would be able to fit in the compartments of the vehicles.
Unfortunately at present most people put them out unsquashed and
so the vehicle is carrying around a lot fresh air. It takes around
20,000 2 litre milk bottles to make 1 tonne and we ship out loads
of 16 Tonne + that's over 320,000 milk bottles! Storage of these
sorts of quantities is a large demand on space at any depot. There
are several different types of plastic and of those the 3 main
ones can be easily reprocessed and turned into new plastic products
and all 3 are used in manufacturing plastic bottles that's why
we collect only bottles. Other items may be of the same polymer
group, and bear the same number in the triangle, but it would be
so time consuming if our collectors had to check the symbol on
the bottom of each container put out for collection.
Why do I have to take bottle tops off?
Because when it gets back to our storage depot, the plastic is put
into a baler which squashes it making it more efficient to transport
to the reprocessors, this process uses a lot of force and if a
bottle has its top on the air is squashed and the top is forced
off at great speed which can cause serious injury.
Why do I have to wash out the recyclables?
We operate a source separated collection scheme, our crews collect
your box and then return to the vehicle to sort the different materials
into separate bays for each recyclate. This means that the crew
have to handle each and every item that you put out for collection,
if it has food or chemicals such as bleach left inside it can spill
onto the operative which isn't pleasant and in the case of bleach
etc. it can cause injury. In the summer jam jars, food containers
etc. attract insects, flies, wasps etc. which are another hazard
to the crews. The reprocessors also need the materials to be as
uncontaminated as possible, any serious contamination could easily
result in a lorry load being rejected - cost, more carbon emissions
and more landfill!
What is the difference between Source Separated and Co-mingled collections?
Source separated is where the materials are sorted into the different
types at source and are kept separated all the way through the
system to the reprocessor. This method of collection results in
a far higher quality of recyclate preferred by the reprocessors
and virtually zero being sent to landfill
Co-mingled is where all the materials are collected in a refuse
truck and sorted later in a MRF (Materials Recycling Facility) where
everything is put on a conveyor and sorted by either hand (lots of
picking stations) or a combination of machine and hand. This results
in a lot of contamination and more going to landfill instead of being
recycled. The reprocessors are very strict on contamination levels
and rejected loads are costly in both monetary and environmental
terms
Why don't you accept wet paper?
Because the reprocessors can reject the material, up to 30 tonnes
a load. The reprocessors don't like wet paper because when the
paper is received at their plants it can wait in storage areas
for up to 3 months before being processed, if the paper is wet
when it comes in, it can start to compost down which creates chemicals
that interfere with the chemical process used to turn the recycled
paper into new sheets of newspaper.
Useful Tips
Reduce the volume
Crush as much as you can safely. More in the box, more on the van,
more efficient and better for the environment
Not Sure
Please check our web site or ask us either speak to one of our collectors
or call 01769 573081 and press 1 for Kerbside (householders) or
2 for Trade (business's)
Make sure It's Foil
Not crisp packets or tablet wrappers etc they may be shinny but they
are not foil.
It may look like foil but if its not it contaminates the load wasting
lots of resources in sorting through or in the worst case a rejected
load at the reprocessors. Try crumpling it, if it stays crumpled
and doesn't spring back at all it is probably foil. Not sure, please
don't put it in your box.
Christmas & Birthdays
Shinny wrapping paper can't be recycled, try and use recyclable wrapping
paper
Windy Days
If possible put lighter recyclates at the bottom and heavier on top
covered by the green paper bag this will help stop recyclates blowing
around on windy days
Large furniture
Contact our Reuse Shop or Charity Shops and if they can't help take
them to your local CARC sites
Items not on the Kerbside Recycling List
A list of what we can take was provided to every house with their
green box & bag. If you have lost this you can either download
it from our website www.southmoltonrecycle.com or call us for a
replacement. For other items such as batteries, electrical items,
washing machines etc - contact our Reuse Shop or other Charities,
if they can't help try your local CARC site.
Business's can't use CARC Sites
CARC sites are for householders only, business must pay for their
waste disposal and recycling
Business Rates
Does not cover Waste OR Recycling collections for business's it is
different to your council Tax
How should we present our recyclables for collection?
* Only put items into the box and bag that we can recycle - Check
on your memory jogger
* Please make sure everything is clean - wash out tins etc. with
your washing up
* Take lids of plastic bottles and crush as much as possible, you'll
get more in and we can get more on our truck
* Make sure your box & bag are out by 7:15 on the morning of
your collection day - our crews start at 7am and sometimes do the
round in different ways meaning they may well collect at different
times from week to week.
* Only put plastic bottles in the box we can't take other plastics,
yoghurt pots, margarine tubs, food trays, plastic bags etc.
* Place the box on the kerbside, not in your garden, where it can
be easily seen if possible
* On windy days try and make sure heavier items are on top, including
the green bag, to try and stop the lighter items blowing around.
* Please don't put anything in your box that we can't recycle if
unsure please check before putting in the box or bag
Thank you for helping reduce the amount going to landfill and saving
valuable resources |
