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What happens to your recycling?

Updated 3 January 2008

Cleanaway lorries collect your recyclable waste. The glass is separated form the rest of the waste within the lorry and is disposed of separately. The rest of it, the tins, plastic, paper and cardboard get taken to SITA which is located at Enstone on the airfield industrial estate. At  SITA the mixed waste gets separated out and is baled for selling on to the reprocessing companies.

Reprocessing of WODC recycled waste
(Source: WODC press release August 2006)

GLASS - 70% of glass is sold to the UK glass industry and recycled for bottle making and fibreglass manufacture. A small amount is used in road aggregate (WODC glass goes to a recycler in West Yorkshire). The other 30% goes to the European glass market, mainly to Italy, France, Spain and Portugal, making bottles of a darker green because of having been made from a variety of colours.

CANS - Our food and drink cans go to South Wales. The steel is recovered and sold globally. The aluminium is sold within the UK and made into new drinks cans. The process of recycling used drinks cans to make new ones can take as little as 6 weeks from bin to supermarket.

CARDBOARD - Our cardboard goes to a processor in Doncaster where it is recovered, bulked and sold to paper and cardboard mills. This process involves soaking and agitating to release the fibres and turn them back to pulp. Metal and ink contaminants are removed, finishing chemicals added and the pulp pressed into sheets. Each time cardboard is pulped, the fibres get shorter, but even so, cardboard can be recycled 4 or 5 times. Uses include boxes and packaging, stationery, and animal bedding.

PAPER - WODC paper goes to Kent where it is made into newsprint. Higher grade office paper from the WODC offices is sold on to be made into tissue paper products.

PLASTICS - Plastics go to a recycler in Lancashire where mixed plastics make a wide range of products such as drain pipes, insulation materials, flower pots, watering cans, and fleece material. Myth - Plastic is exported to China and dumped in landfill!

Recycled plastic wall panels used at the Greenwich Peninsula branch of Sainsbury's

Wall panel made of recycled plastic at the Greenwich branch of Sainsbury'sClose up of recycled plastic wall panel at the Greenwich branch of Sainsbury's

Close up of writing on recycled plastic wall panel at the Greenwich branch of Sainsbury'sExplanation of recycled products at Greenwich Peninsula branch of Sainsbury's

TEXTILES - Textiles from recycling centres are collected by cope and taken to their charity shops for resale. Those not suitable for that are sold to rag merchants. Materials collected at the kerbside are sent as second-hand clothes to the third world. Other materials are baled and produce wiping cloths or sold to make insulating material and other products.

Fabric Facts
(Source: CAG Oxfordshire Newsletter October 2006)

  • Nearly 70% of items put into clothing banks are reused as clothes. Any unwearable items are sold to merchants to be recycled as factory wiping cloths.

  • NoLoGo are a team of volunteer designers set up by Oxfam who restyle donated garments and fabrics, selling them on at some Oxfam shops.

  • At least 50% of the textiles we throw away are recyclable.

  • If everyone in the UK bought one reclaimed woollen garment each year it would save an average of 371 milion gallons of water and 480 tonnes of chemical dyestuffs.

  • It is estimated that more that 1 million tonnes of textiles are thrown away every year, with most of this coming from household sources.

  • Unwearable trousers, skirts, etc are sold to the 'flocking' industry which shreds them for fillers in car insulation, roofing felts, loudspeaker cones, panel linings, furniture padding etc.

  • Over 70% of the world's population use secondhand clothes.

 


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