What happens to all the recycling?
We handle a range of material from a variety of sources.
We get recyclable material from household kerbside collection, household recycling sites and collection from businesses.
It has been our aim to ensure the processing occurs in the UK if possible.
We operate our own audit procedure to ensure that what re-processors (the people that are taking the material and either making raw material for another process or making new material themselves) are telling the truth about what happens.
Construction, demolition, civil engineering waste
The material is screened and graded at recycling centres in the UK (we operate our own facility in County Durham). We extract metal which goes to metal foundries. Soils are processed and screened and fed into our soil business. Timber is extracted and goes into our wood recycling stream.
Stones and heavier materials are processed into a variety of aggregate products for use in the building and civil engineering products. These are sold from our Aggregates Recycling Centre in County Durham.
Plastic bottles
Plastic bottles these are transferred to a Leicestershire plant and made into a variety of plastic products, e.g. plastic sacks, film/sheeting products. Other types of applications of granulated plastics are as a feed into injection moulded products e.g. wheeled bins and pallets.
Green waste
Green garden waste is made into compost in the region. We make both PAS100 compost and non-PAS soil improver.
Cardboard
Cardboard is sold to a variety of UK re-processors, it is made into more cardboard.
Aluminium cans
Aluminium cans offer one of the best carbon paybacks (due to the energy intensive nature of extracting and processing Bauxite to make aluminium). Cans are processed in Scotland. They are shredded, melted down, and the molten aluminium poured into moulds to make ingots. These are then sold to companies who make new products such as car and plane parts, or maybe the can containing your next drink!
Glass
Glass that can be melted and remoulded is processed in Scotland. It is crushed and added to the mix of raw materials that make up new glass containers: the majority the glass is made into Scotch whisky, with some beer and wine bottle being made.
Other glass is used as in our aggregate products.
Paper
Paper is processed in Wales in a mill where it is screened, cleaned and de-inked. The mill the paper is sent to makes newsprint.
Shredded paper is made into tissue paper.
Steel from food cans and other sources
Steel is processed in Wales. Steel cans are melted down in a furnace and combined with other raw materials like molten iron. The hot steel is then cast into solid slabs, which can be rolled into foil to make new cans, or other steel products.
Fluorescent tubes and compact fluorescent light bulbs (energy saving bulbs)
The collected tubes and bulbs are sent to a specialist recycling facility in the UK.
In the main the old tubes and bulbs are used to make more tubes and bulbs; the glass in some lower grade tubes cannot be remade into glass for tubes so it is used as building aggregates and for other lower grade applications.
Plasterboard/Gypsum products
The waste plasterboard is re-processed in the UK.
All the gypsum is 100% recycled predominantly in the cement and plasterboard industry.
Oil
We handle about 83,000 litres of waste oil per year. this has been collected from our household waste reycling sites and from commercial clients. The waste oil is recycled on Teesside where it is filtered then blended with other waste oil and made into fuel oil. This fuel is used in the local steel mills.
Waste electronic and electrical equipment (WEEE)
Most of the WEEE collect goes to a variety of reprocessing facilities where the equipment is stripped down to it valuable components ready for recycling.
We also operate a household electrical items (fridges, freezers, microwaves, washing machines, dishwashers, dryers) reuse scheme in County Durham. Machines are taken by East Durham Partnership for repair and refurbishment and eventual resale.
