What we do with your recyclables

What we do with your recyclables

Recyclables from the Pompey Recycling Scheme

All the paper, card, cans and plastic bottles that we collect as part of the Pompey Recycling Scheme are taken to the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF), just off Quatremaine Road, Copnor.

Here, everything dropped off by the recycling collection vehicle into a large concrete bay, this soon mounds up into a huge pile of recycling materials.  A mechanical loader then scoops up the material and feeds it onto a conveyor belt. As the recyclables work their way through the building they are sorted manually and by mechanical sorters into the different types of material.

• Firstly the manual sorters make sure that the conveyer belt isn’t contaminated with things that can’t be recycled
• Then huge magnets attract all the steel food and drinks cans, removing them from the conveyer belt
• After this the remaining material travels through a large rotating drum with holes of varying sizes in it, the aluminium cans and plastic bottles fall through the openings separating them out from the paper and card
• The paper and card travels on throught the drum and back onto the conveyor belt where an optical eye sorts out the different types of paper and card into three separate catergories

• newspaper and pamphlets
• cardboard
• mixed paper

• The different types of plastic are then shredded into small pieces and dropped into a large bath of water, the plastics either float or sink depending upon their type and enables them to be sorted easily

Each type of material is then baled into big cubes and sold for reprocessing.

Paper and Card
Most of the newspaper and magazines collected are presently taken to the world’s largest recycling mill in Aylesford, Kent.

• The paper goes through a massive pulping machine, which removes staples and bindings
• It is then de-inked (the ink is floated off the paper) and the remaining clean pulp is ready to be made into the new paper
• Water is added to the pulp, and then squeezed between large rollers which press it into sheets
• The new paper is dried and wound onto big rolls ready for re-printing

This process is very quick. It’s quite possible that the newspaper you’re reading today could be made out of the newspaper that you put out for recycling last week!

Card and cardboard goes to a different mill, but is treated in much the same way, mostly to make new boxes.

Food and Drinks Cans
The aluminium and steel from recycled food and drinks cans can be made into all sorts of new things. The aluminium is melted down and rolled into sheets before being made into new cans. As well as making more cans, the recycled steel can be used for all sorts of things, including paperclips, scissors, and even new bikes. For every tonne of cans that you recycle, two tonnes of raw materials can be left in the ground, conserving natural resources, habitat and energy.

Plastic Bottles
Plastic bottles can be turned into lots of different plastic goods. First, the bottles are ground into flakes and washed clean. The flakes are dried and are then ready to be made into new things.

• HDPE-type plastic (e.g. milk or fabric conditioner bottles) can be made into pipes
• PVC bottles (such as squash or mineral water bottles) can be made into garden furniture
• PET plastic (the stuff that fizzy drinks bottles are made of) can be made into fleeces!