What happens to the stuff in my bins?

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LANDFILL

Landfill Recycling Food wasteLandfill Recycling Food recycling

45 minutes from your doorstep to landfill. Up to 900 years to decompose.There is little ceremony in this process. Our bin lorries trundle around the district, emptying landfill waste from your grey bins. When they’re full, they drive off to Sutton Courtenay, just outside Didcot, and empty their contents into the landfill site, where it sits and rots. We do what we can to reduce the impact this has, but the reality is it can take a very long time for waste to decompose, and sometimes it never does.

Your recycling is taken to materials recycling facilities in North London and the West Midlands where it is sorted out and sent on to other companies for recycling.

Then your food recycling is taken to our plant at Crowmarsh Gifford.

Our collection crews empty your small food bin into a spare wheelie bin as they move along your road. This is then emptied into a special food pod at the front of the truck.

Your food is blended and pulverised and then stirred in heated tanks which breaks it down into methane and carbon dioxide. It takes about 120 days for your food to break down.

The broken down food creates a rich, organic natural fertiliser which is used on farmland across Oxfordshire. It’s greener, better for the soil, and cheaper for the farmers than the alternatives available.

The process also creates lots of gas which is turned into electricity. The plant in Crowmarsh Gifford makes nearly enough to power a town the size of Wallingford and Radley put together!

Aluminium is recycled in the UK. It is shredded, melted and poured into ingots – they look like bars of gold but a different colour. They’re used to make things like engine parts that make vehicles lighter and more energy efficient.

Steel is melted in the UK. Iron and sometimes oxygen are added and the mixture is heated to 1700°C and made into slabs. It is then rolled into coils for making cars and bridges and other impressive things.

Glass goes to various places in the UK where it is smashed, crushed and cleaned before being melted and moulded into things like jam jars, beer bottles, or fibreglass to insulate homes.

Paper and cardboard is sent to locations in the UK and abroad where it is pulped and mashed, and unhelpful bits and pieces like staples are removed. It’s then cleaned, dried and pressed into new paper.

Some plastics are processed in the UK, but at the moment a lot has to be sent to China as it is one of the few countries that has the facilities and the demand for recycling and reusing plastic. Plastics are sorted, shredded, washed, melted and turned in to pellets to make things like toys, mobile phone cases, pipes, crates and even textiles.

We are lucky because we can recycle most things, up to 80 per cent of our waste in fact. But unfortunately there are still some things that can’t be recycled for various reasons.

The materials recycling facility may not be able to accept some materials because, although the sorting technology is sophisticated, there are some things that it simply can’t separate and sort.

Packaging is sometimes made of lots of different materials which can’t be

separated. A good example is crisp tubes which are made of three different materials. The plastic lid can go in your recycling bin, but the combined metal and cardboard tube cannot yet be separated and sorted by the machinery. Crisp packets and cat food pouches are similar because they are made of a combined metal and plastic package which cannot currently be separated for recycling.

It may not be cost effective to collect the material, sort it, and send it away for recycling, especially if there is no market for the end product. And sometimes, there simply isn’t anywhere suitable to send the material to be re-processed.

Why can’t I recycle everything?

For more information about recycling and reducing waste visitwww.morerecycling.co.ukwww.oxfordshirewaste.gov.ukwww.lovefoodhatewaste.com

FOOD

Did you know?

We canrecycle

all plastic bags,

bottles, pots, tubs

and trays.

£60You can save

a monthby simply

not wasting food.

Most packaging now contains icons and logos related to recycling. These offer advice, or make claims about how environmentally friendly it is. To help you understand some of them, take a glance at the guide below.

The recycle mark: This is a call for action. Please try and recycle whenever possible.

The new packaging symbols: These help to identify how different parts of packaging can be recycled.

“Widely Recycled” 65 per cent of people have access to recycling facilities for this.“Check locally” 15-65 per cent of people have access to recycling facilities for this.“Not recycled” means less than 15 per cent of people have access to recycling facilities for these items. But remember, it is always worth checking the council website to see if it can be recycled.

The ‘mobius loop’: Indicates that an object can be recycled - not that the object has been recycled. Check the recycling information on our website to see if you can put it in your green wheelie bin.

On plastic items this will have a number in it and letters such as PET or HDPE - these identify the type of plastic. We generally take all types of plastic including bags, bottles, pots, tubs and trays (unless made up of a number of materials, such as cat food pouches which are a type of metalised plastic). Remember to remove lids from bottles and pots.

‘Mobius loop’ with percentage: Shows the percentage of recycled material contained in the product.

The green dot: This does not necessarily mean that the packaging can be recycled. It is a symbol used on packaging in many European countries and means that the producer has made a financial contribution towards the recycling of packaging.

Paper: To be given the National Association of Paper Merchants mark, paper or board must be made from a minimum of 75 per cent recycled waste paper and/or board fibre. It should not contain waste fibre produced in mills.

Wood: The Forest Stewardship Council logo identifies products which contain wood from well managed forests independently certified in accordance with the rules of the FSC A.C. This usually means that for each tree felled to make the product, at least one more is planted.

Tidyman: Dispose of this carefully and thoughtfully. Do not litter. This is a reminder to be a good citizen, disposing of the item in the most appropriate manner which, 80 per cent of the time, is probably in the recycling or food waste bin.

And what do all those symbols mean anyway?

What about all my Christmas waste? Over the Christmas period, a whopping 30 per cent more waste is produced in households across our district! This year, why not make a special effort to minimise waste and recycle all you can.

But, you can’t always influence what others give you, so here’s a handy reminder of what to do with all the packaging, wrapping and various other Christmas bits and bobs that accumulate in your house during the festive season. Remember to separate plastic inserts from cardboard (like in advent calendars), but both parts can go in your recycling!

Is all that packaging really necessary?Packaging can be really annoying at Christmas time. Your house becomes littered with it, and those giant packages for something small seem pointless and wasteful. Why not try and find gifts with less packaging this year? Or even better, buy someone vouchers or an experience. Would mum prefer another gift set, or a lovely facial to cheer her up during January when all the excitement is over? Maybe dad would like Cornerstone tickets rather than more hankies? If you think creatively there are loads of ideas out there that use considerably less packaging and can be lots more fun!

Recycling• gift wrap (paper based only)• chocolate tins and foil food trays• chocolate box inner trays

and cardboard boxes• sausage trays and cardboard sleeves• empty cranberry sauce and brandy butter jars and lids• whipping cream tubs and lids• Christmas crackers (card type only)• greeting cards• chocolate advent calendars (when empty of course!).

Food recycling • turkey carcass• left over brussel sprouts• carrot and potato peelings• satsuma peelings• cooking fats and oils• that leftover bit of cream cheese that you had to

scrape from the pot so you could recycle it • leftovers from your plate (not that there will be much!).

You get the idea…

Re-use• cover crisp tubes (and whisky tubes too!) with paper

and use them and chocolate tins for storage, or simply for collecting pennies in

• Christmas cards, tinsel and ribbons can be used for next years hand made cards and gift tags

• buy rechargeable batteries to go with those gifts that need power

• get bags for life or, at the very least, reuse your carrier bags before recycling them

• artificial trees make less mess, last a long time, and are cheaper in the long run

• make some fantastic meals from leftovers. Check out www.lovefoodhatewaste.com for ideas that are a bit more creative than the usual turkey sandwiches.

Landfill bin• crisp packets/tubes• spent party poppers• bubble wrap• tinsel• satsuma nets• polystyrene.

Charity shop• awful Christmas jumper• old clothes, to make space for new ones• unwanted toys, books and gift sets.

Brown binAfter Christmas there are several options for your now sad looking tree. You can:• put your tree beside your garden waste

bin for collection • take it to your local collection point• take it to your local waste and recycling centre.Check Binfo, or visit our website for information about revised dates and collection points. And remember you can move to environmentally friendly e-billing by calling us on 01749 341247.

x%

CARDwidely

recycled

SLEEVE

METALcheck localrecycling

TRAY

PLASTICnot currently

recycled

FILM

GARDEN