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36 How Things Work in South Hams - RECYCLING


What happens to our recycling after we’ve bagged it up and left it outside the door?


Blue and clear sacks After collection the sacks of recyclables are taken to the council’s depot at Torr Quarry, just outside Kingsbridge. They’re then loaded onto artic-


ulated vehicles, weighed, and sent to a Materials Recovery Facility near Exeter. Here a machine removes the sacks – which are sent off with other non-recyclable rubbish – and the recyclable materials are placed on a conveyor belt. Around 20 people then manually pick out the materi- als along the


conveyor belt. At the first stage the pickers pull out major contam- inated items – including half full milk bottles and pizza boxes, which usually have greasy debris on them that interferes with the recycling process. They often have pizza still in them too! Other non-recyclable materials


“Unfortunately, there is a high


contamination rate in the blue sacks, mainly from food and drink. We are unable to


recycle a lot of paper and cardboard in the first stage of sorting because of this.”


are also removed at this point, including black plastic. The kerbside crews do spot checks when collecting the recycling, to look for heavily + sacks, but it can be difficult for them to see through the blue sacks. If they find a sack with contaminants in they can leave a sticker on it to alert the resident to what’s wrong. The resident can then


the two. This is why black plastic cannot


“Tetra Pak’s, or card drinks cartons, used for


juice and milk, were recently added to the list of items that can be put in the blue sacks.”


be recycled at the moment - the carbon pigment in it confuses the infrared light system. The plastics are then baled into clear PET plastic, which is more valuable, and coloured HDPE plas- tic, and sent off to a reprocessor outside of the county. At the re- processor they are broken down into pellets and sold on to make new plastic products. Tins, cans and silver foil A magnet or electric current separates non-magnetic alumin- ium from magnetic steel


along the conveyor belt.


re-sort and remove any problem items and put it out on the next collection day, and throw any items that cannot be recycled into the grey wheelie bin. Plastic bottles During the second stage at the Materials Recovery Facility, infrared technology scans the plastic on the conveyor belt and separates clear plastic from coloured, by shooting a light that distinguishes between


The separated metals are then baled up. The steel is sent to Port Talbot to be reused for tin cans etc, and the aluminium also heads to Wales and can be recycled over and over again. This is why metal containers are


more environmentally friendly than plastic bottles which can only be recycled into lower quality items. Blue sacks – paper and card These are also sent to the Materials Recovery Facility at Exeter. There is a high contamination


rate in the blue sacks, mainly from food and drink, which prevents a


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