Recycling the art of the possible
Over the past few years a quiet revolution has been taking place in Norfolk. The County has risen rapidly to become a recycling leader within the UK, helped in no small part by the building of a state of the art recycling facility at Costessey, Norwich. The facility, which is operated by NEWS, has the capacity to handle all of the recyclable waste currently produced by Norfolk’s households and is one of the most advanced in Europe.
Most people in the County will now have wheeled recycling bins. The contents of these bins are taken to the NEWS site at Costessey to be sorted and shipped to re-processing plants across the UK. Each local council has produced information telling householders what they can and cannot put in their bin. The materials that NEWS can recycle are:
Newspapers and magazines
Junk mail
Office paper
Card and cardboard
Food and drinks cans
Plastic bottles.
People are often surprised when they realise that there are still a number of everyday products that cannot be recycled, like yoghurt pots, aluminium foil and envelopes.
It is important to look at the facts behind the issue. For one, Norfolk is way ahead of most counties in recycling terms and, with the introduction of the Costessey NEWS facility, has the capacity to meet recycling targets set by the government even without sorting things like yoghurt pots.
Another point to consider is the fact that neither NEWS nor local councils deliberately dictate what can and can’t be accepted for recycling. At the end of the day it comes down to the simple fact that some things can be recycled and some things can’t. For example, there is no point NEWS accepting and sorting yoghurt pots if there is no factory to recycle them – which is the case at the moment.
Two big things affect what can be recycled: cost and technology. Recycling, like any business, has to follow supply and demand and it is these shifting prices that directly affect what Norfolk’s householders can put in their recycling bins.
In order for NEWS and Norfolk’s councils to be able to accept a certain material for recycling, they have to know that their costs will be covered – in general the costs included sorting the material and then delivering it to a recycling plant, the actual household collection is coved by council tax. The kind of things that affect how much a recycling company will pay per tonne include: how easy it is to recycle the material – sometimes it is cheaper to simply make a new product from scratch, how much demand there is for the product and the quality of the material being supplied – for example aluminium cans are readily accepted for recycling, however aluminium foil has many more chemicals in it and is made of a lower grade material so commands a much lower price per tonne.
Paper is a prime example of how cost can create problems. To most people paper is paper, whether it is from a newspaper or an envelope. Unfortunately this isn’t the case – paper recycling mills cannot process envelopes because the glues in them weaken the recycled paper. Because of this they will not pay as much money for normal paper that has been mixed with envelopes. The lesser price paid for mixed quality paper means that it is difficult for NEWS to cover the cost of recovering and transporting the paper. If NEWS loses money whilst recovering the paper, it quickly becomes impossible to carry on recycling it. It is very difficult for NEWS to separate sheets from envelopes, so we request that envelopes are not put in recycling bins.
Speaking of paper, shredded paper cannot be accepted either – it is virtually impossible to recycle and worthless. NEWS’ tip is to mix the paper with grass cuttings in a compost bin to produce really effective garden mulch.
Technology, or the lack of it, is the other reason why certain materials can’t be recycled yet - plastic is a good example of this. At the moment NEWS can accept plastic bottles for recycling, but cannot accept yoghurt pots, plastic food trays, margarine tubs, ice cream tubs, plant pots, children’s toys and coat hangers. This is because these products are made of a different type of plastic from drinks bottles, which is very difficult to recycle. NEWS is faced with the problem that whilst recycling companies can process bottles, they cannot accept any other plastic, and the technology does not exist to separate the two. At the moment the only way to sort the plastics is by hand – a slow and costly procedure. It would be much easier if householders helped by sorting the plastic before it goes into the recycling bin.
At the moment plastic tubs and pots, aluminium foil and envelopes all end up going into landfill, but they have to be sorted first – which eventually ends up costing Norfolk’s householders more. NEWS’ message is: please, only put materials that can be recycled in the recycling bin - it will save you money in the long run.
Recycling technology has come on leaps and bounds, moving from a distant dream to the commercial reality of facilities like Costessey. Despite these major advances the industry still has much potential. As recycling technology advances, it will become possible to reprocess more and more products. NEWS is always investing in new technology for its Costessey facility, not only to keep itself at the forefront of recycling technology but to help Norfolk remain one of the UK’s leading recyclers.
