Did you know?

Although new products are made from recycled waste, the main reason we must recycle is because of what would happen if we did not. Most waste in the UK that is not recycled is piled up on a landfill site, crushed with huge vehicles and buried under more rubbish. When the landfill site is full it is topped off with soil and vented with pipes to let out the methane gas, which builds up underground as a result of the decomposition process.

The methane that is released is a significant greenhouse gas, which contributes to global warming. In addition, the space required for land-filling all our waste is rapidly running out. We either drastically cut down how much rubbish we throw away or we will be forced to use more and more of our countryside, in places closer and closer to our homes.

The UK has also signed up to a European law, which states that the amount of rubbish dumped into landfill must reduce over the coming years, for which there are strict targets. This is known as the “Landfill Directive”.

No, it does not! The reality is that nowadays there is a great deal of recycling being undertaken and the volumes of materials that are sent for recycling are increasing. This is because:

1. more people are becoming aware of it;
2. more facilities are being made available for recycling, including council kerbside collections, better facilities at household waste recycling centres (what used to be called “the council tip”), recycling banks in cities, towns and supermarkets, and return schemes for items such as mobile phones, printer cartridges and domestic appliances;
3. evolving separation and re-processing technologies add to the types of materials that can be recycled, such as mixed plastics, drinks cartons and electrical goods.

In addition to this, because waste reduction is being covered by more environmental laws, fines and penalties will be stepped up and imposed on people that do not comply. This is well-established for companies and will become more so for the general public, particularly for non-compliance with residential recyclable materials collections. Under landfill law, councils will incur financial penalties for exceeding their landfill quotas. The effects of this will be felt by the general public either through reduced council services, increased council taxes or fines on individuals. Or all of these.

When the can bank is full the contents will be picked up, put on the back of a lorry and taken to a recycling facility. There it will be sorted to separate the “ferrous” from the “non-ferrous” cans – the steel from the aluminium.

These are different types of metal – “ferrous” simply means the metal contains iron, you can experiment with this for yourself by holding a magnet against the can. If the magnet sticks to it the can is ferrous, if it doesn’t the can is aluminium!

Recycling facilities do a similar job but on a much larger scale. They also separate the cans from rubbish that might have been accidentally placed in the can bank. At the end of the process, the cans are crushed and formed into large bales – blocks of crushed metal cans – which are taken to a metal re-processing facility. The re-processor will melt the cans down to liquid metal and make them into new products.

So the empty can you threw in the can bank will be made into new cans, or aircraft parts, or car parts, or baking foil, or... Plus the whole recycling process uses less energy and causes much less damage to the environment than using brand new materials.

Over the last few years a small number of local councils have been piloting the collection of recyclable materials from people’s houses, 90% of households in England are now receiving this service. It has been primarily driven by: a) a financial penalty on the council for exceeding limits on waste that is allowed to go to landfill; and b) the Household Waste Recycling Act 2003, which requires that all waste collection authorities must recycle at least 2 types of waste per household by 31 December 2010.

As there is not a stipulation of what types of waste this is, households in different areas might well be recycling different waste types. The types of recyclables that are being collected will largely be determined by the recycling facilities and re-processing outlets the councils are using.

In the very near future it is likely that all households will be recycling at least 4 different types of waste, with many recycling 6 or more.

This is an area which people have been trying to tackle for some time. It is relevant to the “Reduce” part of the “Reduce, Re-use, Recycle” waste hierarchy (see above).

Consumer goods manufacturing companies, retailers and the buying public all have a role to play in reducing the amount of unnecessary packaging used. Companies use packaging on a product for a number of reasons, including:

• to stop damage to the product during transport
• to keep the product secure
• to keep the product clean and hygienic
• to give technical information and instructions for the product
• to display the product in store
• to advertise the product

Any product will be using packaging for two or three of these purposes and very often for all of them. What people are now suggesting, however, is that there should be a reasonable balance struck between the commercial needs of the packaging and the excessive use of packaging materials.

Manufacturers' use of packaging is now governed by environmental law. One law – the Producer Responsibility (Packaging Waste) Regulations – requires that the company recycles a proportion of the packaging they use (not necessarily their own packaging), which to some extent might give them an incentive to use less packaging in the first place as it will cost them to comply with a recycling scheme.

Another key item of law – the Packaging (Essential Requirements) Regulations – restricts the volume of the materials used and the number of different types of material in the packaging. This helps in the recycling process as there is less material to handle and less separation of material types to be undertaken.

However, we can all see that when we bring home our weekly shopping there is still a great deal of packaging used for our purchases. We can have an impact on this ourselves by re-using carrier bags, choosing products with less packaging (e.g. fruit and vegetables) and even asking the shop manager what they are doing to reduce the amount of packaging they allow on their goods.

Do not under-estimate the power of the buying public – it remains the most effective means for changing the habits of companies who rely on you to choose their products…!

The best option is to go to your local Household Waste Recycling Centre, where it is likely that a wide range of materials are collected for recycling. To find your nearest one use the Yellow Pages or Yell.com online, or call your local council’s main telephone number.

To find out where your local recycling banks are, go to www.recyclenow.com and enter your postal code at the foot of the home page. Each group of recycling banks might be restricted in what they take but it is well worth finding out where they are.

This is not true. Recycled materials are a saleable commodity and the high quality end product that H W Martin’s facilities produce are matched with the best market outlets at any given time. The vast majority of our recyclable materials are re-processed in Europe, with paper being used to make new paper products in, for example, Sweden and Belgium and the majority of plastics being re-processed within the UK.

Although they are likely to be different types of plastic, both the bottle and the lid can be recycled. To aid the sorting process remove the lid from the bottle before placing them into your recycling bag or box.

There are many types of plastic, each of which tends to be used for certain product groups. The following list illustrates what you are likely to see:

Polymer Types	Examples of Applications	Symbol
Polyethylene Terephthalate	Fizzy drink and water bottles. Salad trays.
High Density Polyethylene	Milk bottles, bleach, cleaners and most shampoo bottles.
Polyvinyl Chloride	Pipes, fittings, window and door frames (rigid PVC). Thermal insulation (PVC foam) and automotive parts.
Low Density Polyethylene	Carrier bags, bin liners and packaging films.
Polypropylene	Margarine tubs, microwaveable meal trays, also produced as fibres and filaments for carpets, wall coverings and vehicle upholstery.
Polystyrene	Yoghurt pots, foam hamburger boxes and egg cartons, plastic cutlery, protective packaging for electronic goods and toys. Insulating material in the building and construction industry.
Unallocated References	Any other plastics that do not fall into any of the above categories – for example polycarbonate which is often used in glazing for the aircraft industry

The first thing you will notice is you are likely to run out of space in your general waste bin. Most councils have reduced or will be reducing the frequency of general waste collections in order to alternate them with the collection of recyclable waste. If this means your wheelie bin is only emptied fortnightly you will probably be jumping up and down on it to get the lid to close!

So you will find that once you get used to putting newspapers, cereal boxes, bottles, etc in the recycling bin, bag or box, there will be a lot more space for the non-recycled waste in your wheelie bin.

It also shows you how much of our waste that could have been recycled in the past ended up in a landfill site.

In addition, owing to the penalties that might be passed on to householders by the council for not recycling, you might find you are out of pocket too (see I know some people who don’t recycle any of their waste – does that mean I might as well not bother? above).

This is hard to say, as people’s perceptions of quality differ. Product manufacturers ensure the quality of materials used is up to the same standard irrespective of its source and this includes recycled material. The main difference comes from how the product looks in terms of colour shade and texture. The purer the recycled material, the closer the product will be to looking like it does when made from virgin materials.

Many products are made using materials that include some from recycled sources. Most of the time we don’t know which they are and the quality is just as good either way.

It is likely that a far greater number of products are made using at least some recycled material than people would think. The product most would associate with recycled material is paper and this is often stated on the product packaging. However, most products do not mention that they use recycled materials, including paper products, but also products containing steel and aluminium, as well as moulded and extruded plastic products that use flaked or pelleted recycled plastic.

So the answer is, you would only know if it is either stated on the product packaging or you happen to know that the manufacturing process uses recycled material.