What happens to my recycling?

If you’ve ever wondered what happens to the items you place in your recycling bin, read on!

As we all wake up to the threats to our global environment caused by greenhouse gasses, plastic packaging and an increasingly throwaway society, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the need to live more sustainably.

One thing we can all do now is to think more carefully about the waste we produce; how we can minimise the amount sent to landfill sites by reducing consumption the first place, reusing items where possible and making full use of local recycling facilities and collection services.

Residents of the London Borough of Barnet have a black bin for ordinary household waste and a blue bin to collect mixed recycling. Bins are collected weekly – residents are asked to only put items, which can’t be recycled any other way in their black bins.

Things you can put in your blue recycling bin:

• cardboard
• cartons – for fruit juice cartons, milk etc
• food tins and drinks cans
• mixed glass, bottles and jars
• paper
• plastic bottles – lids and tops can be either left on or off
• plastic tubs, pots and trays – remove any film lids and pads in the bottom of trays.

It’s true that collecting, rinsing and storing all this material can sometimes feel like a chore. But if you’re wondering why bother, don’t give up! Whether you live in Barnet, or elsewhere in the UK, it’s vital that we all keep recycling for lots of reasons.

Why recycle?

Sending material to landfill is costly for councils; money which could be spent on vital services such as social care. Recycling also reduces the need to make new products from raw materials, conserving natural resources such as trees, water and minerals and reducing energy use.

It’s easy to become cynical about recycling and question the point. So, it’s worth finding out what exactly happens to your recycling – knowing, for example, that your recycled plastic bottles might one day become a picnic table, toy or football top might help to keep you motivated.

What happens to recycling?

In Barnet, your mixed recycling is taken to what’s called a materials recovery facility (MRF) where it is sorted by hand and machine. Once sorted, your waste materials become valuable commodities for resale and are then transported to plants in the UK and abroad for reprocessing. Find out more about how each type of recycling is transformed…

Paper and card

Here in the UK, all newsprint is made from recycled paper – so when you put your old newspapers out for collection, they’ll be turned into more newspapers and magazines.

• Used paper and card is shredded and mixed with water (to make a pulp).
• The pulp goes through a decontamination process to remove unwanted items such as glue and ink.
• Water is removed from the pulp by pressing it through large rollers.
• Once dry, new sheets of paper and card are produced.

Plastic

The plastic bottles, tubs, pots and trays, which you place in your recycling bin go to special plants where they are sorted by hand, then by colour and type using lasers. The plastic is then shredded, melted down and reformed into pellets, which are used to make new and useful items including:

• refuse sacks and carrier bags
• underground drainage systems for homes and national infrastructure
• flowerpots, seed trays, watering cans and water butts
• wheel arch liners and bumpers on cars
• damp proof membranes, guttering and window profiles used in construction
• reusable crates and pallets
• wheel bins and food caddies
• composters and wormeries
• drinks bottles and food trays
• polyester fabric for clothing.

Cartons

Cartons are sorted from other types of waste then placed in a machine with water, which breaks them down to a pulp. The paper and plastic content of the cartons is separated, so the paper can be used to make cardboard tubes and the plastic a range of items such as plastic furniture and playmats.

Glass

More than 80% of the glass collected for recycling is used in the UK. Glass is sorted by colour then crushed up, melted in a furnace and blown to make new glass bottles and jars.

Cans

Drinks cans are sorted into different metals, using magnets, before being crushed down and melted into ingots in a furnace. These ingots are used to make many new products – from more tins and cans to car parts.

New technology means there’s an ever-increasing range of quality products that are made from recycled materials.

Garden waste

Barnet residents can also sign up for green bin garden waste collections. Use your bin for:

• grass cuttings
• hedge trimmings and tree cuttings
• small branches
• flowers
• leaves
• weeds

But no soil or food waste. The material collected is turned into compost to be used in agriculture.

If you need to get rid of a large amount of waste

If you’re moving home, having building work done or just having a clear out, you might be thinking about hiring a skip to make the job easier. A skip is a great way to dispose of everything in one go – just try to avoid filling up your skip with items which could be disposed of elsewhere, in a more environmentally-friendly fashion.

Bottles, tins, paper and plastic can all be put in your borough council recycling bin. Unwanted clothes and other household items can be taken to charity shops, donated via Freecycle or sold on eBay or at a car boot sale.

Find out more

Proskips provides skips of all sizes to homes in Barnet. If you would like to find out more about our skip hire services in Barnet, or get advice about what can and can’t be disposed of in your skip, please contact us.