What happens to my recyclables?
Plastic bottles and cans:
The plastic bottles and cans collected from
public recycling sites and from the recycling scheme, rECOllect,
are taken to the Materials Reclamation Facility (MRF) at Cupid
Green Depot. The vehicle unloads recyclables into a pit in the MRF.
The conveyor belt takes the material up from the pit on to the
sorting line where the staff sorts the recyclables manually. The
material passes through to a sorting area with 5 sorting positions,
where different materials are sorted and sent through to a series
of hoppers. The hoppers are linked to an automatic baling press.
Once the plastic bottles are baled they are kept in a storage area
until there is enough stock to send to a reprocessor. Plastic
bottles can be made into various items, such as fleece jackets,
park benches, recycling boxes, etc.
The cans are separated into aluminium and
steel. Once the plastic bottles have been picked at the beginning
of the sorting line, what is left is the aluminium and steel cans
and some general waste. The aluminium cans are passed down a hopper
into a baler which turns into briquettes weighing approximately 16
kg. The briquettes are kept in a storage area until there is enough
stock to send to a reprocessor. Aluminium cans can be made into
more drinks cans, car parts, etc. Steel cans can be made into more
cans, cutlery, jewellery, etc.
Newspapers and Magazines
A household boundary collection, rECOllect
scheme, of newspapers and magazines was introduced in 1997. After
the collection of the black box contents of newspapers, magazines
and junkmail, the paper is bulked and transported from Cupid Green
depot to a reprocessor, Holmens in Chatham, Kent. The paper then
gets baled and shipped to Sweden for recycling and returns as
newsprint.
Glass
Around 85% of households in Dacorum receive a
kerbside collection of glass bottles and jars. The glass is
sorted by our collection crews at the kerbside into the different
colour groups; clear, green and brown. The glass is then stored in
bays at Cupid Green Depot, where it is then taken to OI, a glass
reprocessor in Harlow, Essex. All Dacorum's glass is then
recycled into new glass bottles and jars.