Reflections on recycling – WI meeting Thursday 4th February 2016
Dear Ladies,
Andrew Jenkins, the recycling officer for both Cherwell and South Northants District Councils provided an excellent presentation on Oxfordshire’s waste recycling operations giving us a general break-down of details to contemplate before our member’s follow-up visit on Monday, 15th February. Visiting groups may only be a maximum of 15 and names and next-of-kin telephone numbers are required for all visitors.
Here are a few of Andrew’s fact and figures to juggle with:
Collections from Cherwell:
5 daily collections of blue bins
80,000 tonnes per week
240, 000 tonnes per month
3,360, 000 tonnes per year
Food and Garden waste: In-vessel composting to cope with meat and dairy. Agrivert operation means all waste stays in Oxfordshire for sorting, shredding and into bunkers at temperatures of bet ween 60o – 80o C. to kill off all material. Speedy maturation to a high quality fertilizer allows contents to be provided for farmers within 8-10 weeks.
Blue bin recycling:
70% paper, card and all mixed paper – this provides us with an excellent money return for our endeavours.
12.5% low weight plastic bottles and containers
5% ferrous metals
2.5% Aluminium
10% glass and other residue – glass is not wanted – other materials are – clothes, shoes, textiles, household waste, food.
Glass: this degrades quality of other items. Bottle banks good for better quality of glass for recycling which gives more financial gain for our operations. Every clear glass item in particular will be made into new glass. It’s a win-win situation with better organization for recycling exactitude resulting in higher profit margins for the operative.
Our recycling facility is in Cheshire – UPM – a large company and Cherwell. Waste is carried to Cheshire and worth of recycling is higher than cost of petrol. Waste sorted in 40 minutes by visual inspection, followed by ferrous separation via magnetic conveyor belt, with sale of items as blocks of steel. Paper and cardboard roller sorted with smaller things falling through. All previously done by hand, roller operation much more efficient. Plastics sorted by high technical sorter. Spectometer scanner. Separation chamber. Not for big items or flimsy plastics. Difficult to recycle.
Crushed milk bottles straight back to dairy.
Paper and card to pulping machine via Cheshire and immediately back into re-use.
Much better to recycle than to use landfill sites.
The Facts:
300,000 tonnes of waste per annum
95% diverted from landfill
338, 000 homes supplied with electricity – reduces carbon emissions by 58 tonnes
Value for money – landfills cost us more money
Recycling firms make money by efficient handling of waste. Shut-downs cost them money as does any non-efficient workings.
A follow-on question and answer response allowed members the opportunity for individual queries and Caroline gave our vote of thanks for a most interesting explanation of how our accumulated waste is collected and recycled.
Margaret Halstead.