Recycling

Where does all the material go?

Each recycling collection crew collects between 2 to 3 wagon loads of recyclable material every day. Each time they are full they tip off the contents in our recycling depot in Church.

At the depot we have constructed large 'bulking up' bays where each material is bulked up until there is enough to be loaded into 20 to 30 tonne loads.

Glass

Every week a load of mixed glass bottles and containers are transported to our reprocessing partner Recresco Ltd.

This company has the technology to then separate the different colours of glass which is either sold on to the glass manufactures to make new bottles and containers, sold to road building contractors to use as aggregate in new roads, grinding it down to a fine powder to use in the 'sand blasting' industry or to organisations that make decorative items such as beads for gardens etc.

This is not a complete list as there are always new organisations looking into ways to use recycled glass.

Cans

All our cans are sent to our reprocessing partner Valpak in Preston where they separate the steel and aluminium cans by large magnets.

Once separated and bailed, the aluminum cans are sent to a reprocessing factory in Warrington where they are melted down to make new cans. The steel cans are sent to merchants and other organisations that also melt them down to create new steel products, including cans.

Cardboard

Once collected, the cardboard is taken to our partner Rishton Waste Paper and then recycled and used to make more cardboard boxes.

Paper

All the paper collected in Hyndburn is recycled into new newsprint by our partner Holmen Paper. Once collected, the paper is transported to Chatham docks in Kent where it is mixed with material from all over the country, bailed and finally shrink wrapped, before being shipped out in 4,000 tonne loads to their paper mill in Sweden .

Once at the mill, the ink is removed and the remaining pulp cleaned and then mixed together with a small amount of virgin wood pulp to produce the new recycled news print. The ship then returns to the UK with 4,000 tonnes of new news print.

Plastic bottles

Platic bottles are collected and delivered to the recycling depot were we load the bottles into a compaction skip which squashes them tightly together.This reduces the volume of space needed when transporting the bottles.Each skip can be filled with approximately 60,000 bottles and when full is transported to our reprocessing partner Plastic Recovery in Preston where the different types of plastic are sorted.

Recycled plastic bottles can not only be made in to new bottles but also items such as fleeces, garden furniture, tables and benches. Did you know it only takes 25 two litre pop bottles to make one adult size fleece jacket?

Textiles

Your textiles are exported to organisations in the Third World who sell the items onto local residents in these countries. The direct export to these local organisations ensures that the benefits of the textiles are gained by the Third World .

More Interesting Facts

There are approximately 4,000 glass bottles in a tonne
There are approximately 6,000 newspapers in a tonne
There are approximately 20,000 plastic bottles in a tonne
There are approximately 23,000 cans in a tonne
The same amount of energy needed to make 1 aluminium can is the same as recycling 20 used cans.
There are approximately 7,000 mens shirts in a tonne
There are approximately 1,500 mens jeans in a tonne
There are approximately 2,000 trousers in a tonne
There are approximately 14,000 children's dresses in a tonne
There approximately 2,000 shoes/ trainers in a tonne.