What Happens to Your Waste?

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When it comes to household rubbish, we’re often guilty of indulging in that old saying, ‘out of sight, out of mind’. After all, once it’s safely tucked away in the dustbin, it kind of leaves our sphere of awareness for good. Except, well, that shouldn’t be the case.

You see, research indicates that over 60% of all the waste we discard in the trusty old black bin could actually be recycled. In which case, the everyday waste that we don’t think too much about could make a reappearance as something else, the result of a process that is both economically and environmentally beneficial. Unfortunately, anything that ends up in the black bin is either sent to landfill or, even worse, incinerated, producing greenhouse gasses.

Luckily, we aim to help remedy this problem by sorting through the waste we collect and sending anything recyclable to one of our reliable recycling plants. So, what does that process look like?

A Material World

Obviously, different materials are treated differently in the recycling process. What you may not have known about recycled materials is that there are plants dedicated to the mass recycling of a particular material type. For example, we might send all the glass we sift out from our skips to a glass recycling plant, while shipping plastics over to a plastic recycling plant. That way, the whole process can be completed more efficiently, without fear of cross-contamination of materials that would render their repurposing impossible.

Glass is one of the easiest materials to recycle because it is 100% recyclable. Firstly, it’s sorted by colour and washed for impurities. From there, it’s crushed and melted down, before being moulded into another bottle or similar product. Because the process is fairly straightforward, it’s also quite cheap, making glass recycling one of the most efficient procedures currently operating. Metals like aluminium and steel undergo a similar process.

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Organic Waste

Organic waste is treated a little differently to man-made waste products due to a number of factors that affect its potential for longevity. Projects like garden waste removal and construction operations produce a great deal of organic waste like wood, plants, and loose turf, meaning that we often send huge quantities of it to specialised biomass plants.

Biomass plants break down organic waste into — surprise — biomass, a renewable type of fuel that can actually be used to create electricity. That means that throwing your old weeds and excess garden soil can actually contribute to powering your lights and your TV. It can really benefit the environment in the long run.

Waste Oil and Scrap Metal

Of course, there are some waste products that don’t even need to go through the recycling process. These include things like waste oil and scrap metal, items that are valuable in large enough quantities. Waste oils and scrap metals, while useless to the disposer, can actually be sold on to industries for a profit, which is why you can sell it to waste collection specialists — us included.

So there you have it. By recycling your waste, you can save it from landfill, cut down on greenhouse gasses, make future materials more economic to produce, help power homes, and even profit directly! That’s why it’s important that you know exactly where your waste is going.

scrap-metal

For more information on recycling and waste processing visit our sister company’s site Trade Skips. They have expert waste management advisers at hand, ready to answer any of your questions completely free of charge!