Fascinating Facts

• Last year Norfolk's recycling centres recycled 66% of the waste they received
• The unreleased energy contained in the average dustbin each year could power a television for 5,000 hours
• On average every person in the UK throws away their own body weight in rubbish every 7 weeks

What happens to the recycling I put in my kerbside bin

Materials collected in your kerbside recycling bin are taken to a Materials Recycling Facility in Costessey, Norfolk

Once they arrive they are scooped up by a digger and placed on a big conveyor belt.

The conveyor belt takes the material through a pre sort cabin where cardboard is removed for recycling and non recyclables, such as plastic bags and video tapes are taken out.

Paper is separated out by a piece of equipment called a V screen. Paper flows across the discs while bulkier items such as cans and plastic bottles roll around and go off in a different direction. This is why it is important you do not crush cans and bottles.

The flatter objects are then fed via conveyors using infra red technology to recognise the paper and ‘blow’ off any unwanted materials. Paper is baled up ready to be sent for recycling.

Plastic bottles, and cans are sent through an electromagnet which removes the steel cans. Plastic bottles are separated from aluminium cans by a special electrical current. These materials are baled separately for reprocessing.

Back to top ^

We use 12.5 million tonnes of paper and cardboard every year in the UK [source: Confederation of Paper Industries]

Over Christmas as much as 83 km2 of wrapping paper will end up in UK rubbish bins, enough to cover an area larger than Guernsey [source: Waste Watch]

About one fifth of the contents of household dustbins consist of paper and card, of which nearly half is newspapers and magazines. This is equivalent to over 4kg of waste paper and card per household in the UK each week [Source: Waste Watch]

Recycled paper made up 80.6% of the raw materials for UK newspapers by the end of 2006 [Source: NNIEAG]

How is my paper recycled?

Paper is collected at the kerbside or from the recycling bank, it is then sorted, graded and delivered to a paper mill.

Having reached the paper mill it is then ‘slushed’ into pulp and large contaminants removed. It is screened, cleaned and de-inked through a number of processes until it is suitable for papermaking.

It is then ready to be made into paper again

Back to top ^

• The largest glass furnaces produce more than 400 tonnes – that's more than one million bottles and jars - each day!
• The UK has more than 50,000 bottle banks

Making glass bottles and jars from recycled ones saves energy. The energy saving from recycling one bottle will:
- Power a 100 watt light bulb for almost an hour
- Power a computer for 20 minutes
- Power a colour TV for 15 minutes
- Power a washing machine for 10 minutes

There are over 500 glass banks in Norfolk to recycle your bottles and jars, you probably pass one every day.

How is my glass recycled?

Glass is emptied from bottle banks or kerbside collections systems and taken away to be reprocessed

Larger contaminants are removed by hand

It’s then crushed and goes through further contaminant removal processes (mechanised colour sorting is usually undertaken at this stage when needed)

It’s now mixed with the raw materials and melted in a furnace

The melted material is moulded or blown into new bottles or jars

Back to top ^

• Approximately, 6,500 tonnes of textiles are thrown out each year by Norfolk residents – this all ends up in a landfill site. Most of these could be reused or recycled.
• Nearly 2 million pairs of shoes are thrown out each week that could be worn by someone else

• The world's annual consumption of plastic materials has increased from around 5 million tonnes in the 1950s to nearly 100 million tonnes today.
• Recycling just one plastic bottle saves enough energy to power a 60W light bulb for six hours
• It takes just 25 two litre pop bottles to make one adult size fleece jacket
• 13 billion plastic carrier bags are used in the UK each year.

How are my plastic bottles recycled?

Plastics bottles are manually sorted into type by trained operatives. The polymer type is marked on the plastic but the operative can usually recognise it by appearance.

Following sorting, the plastic is either melted down directly and moulded into a new shape, or melted down after being shredded into flakes and than processed into granules

Your plastic bottles could be made into flooring and window frames, building insulation board, fencing and garden furniture or fleeces

Back to top ^

• Over a third of all rubbish thrown out by Norfolk householders is made up of food waste
• About a third of food grown for human consumption in the UK ends up being thrown away
• On average we each throw away £427 of food waste each year

How can I reduce my food waste?

Make sure you buy what you need and eat what you buy!

Visit the website Love Food Hate Waste, for recipe ideas for leftovers and tips on how to cut down on the amount of food you throw way.

www.lovefoodhatewaste.com

Back to top ^

• Garden waste is a biodegradable material and if landfilled every tonne of biodegradable waste produces 300-500 cubic metres of landfill gas.
• Over 80,000 compost bins have been distributed to Norfolk householders through council schemes

What happens to my garden waste when it is collected?

Garden waste can be brought free of charge to Norfolk’s Recycling Centres or householders can pay to have it collected from the kerbside in a brown bin.

The garden waste is shredded and placed in windrows, which are long narrow piles. These windrows are constantly monitored and moved to aerate them as necessary.

The high temperatures and moist conditions sustained during managed composting ensure that the weed seeds and any plant and human pathogens are destroyed.

Finished compost can be purchased from Norfolk’s six main recycling centres.

Recycling Centre Map

Back to top ^

• If all of the aluminium cans recycled in the UK in 1998 were laid end to end, they would stretch from Land's End to John O'Groats more than 160 times
• Just one recycled aluminium can saves enough energy to run a television set for three hours!
• Every steel can is 100% recyclable. It can be recycled over and over again into products like bicycles and of course new cans
• In the UK we use around 12.5 billion steel cans every year, or 600 per household, but nearly 10 billion of these still go to landfill.

What happens to my cans when they are recycled?

Aluminium can be simply re-melted - using only around 5% of the energy used when it was made.

The cans are shredded, any coloured coating is removed. The shreds are melted down in giant furnaces. The molten metal is poured into ingot casts and chilled to set.

Aluminium cans are recycled into new cans, they can be back on the shelves in 6-8 weeks.

Steel is the most recycled material in the world. Steel is easy to separate out because it’s magnetic. Waste steel is melted down with iron ore and limestone; it is poured into a mould and cooled then chopped into blocks.

Steel can be recycled into many products including bicycle frames, pipes, car parts, suspension Bridges

Back to top ^

• Homes in Norfolk throw away enough waste every year to cover the Carrow Road football pitch to a depth of 25m. (This is the equivalent in height to two and a half double decker buses)
• The maximum penalty for fly tipping is £50,000 or 5 years imprisonment
• Over 1,000 vehicles are found abandoned or untaxed in Norfolk every year costing councils thousands of pounds to deal with
• In 2006 there was an 18 percent reduction in the number of reported fly tipping incidents in Norfolk
• Under UK packaging rules, manufacturers found guilty of using excess packaging on just a single item face a fine of up to £5,000

What happens to my rubbish when it is collected?

Norfolk’s approach to waste management is to reduce, reuse and recycle as much of our household waste as we can. Thanks to all our residents, we are very good at recycling and indications are that last year we were the highest recycling county in the region and fourth in the whole country.

We currently bury most of the waste left over after recycling and reusing in landfill sites. But we can’t continue to do this due to the environmental impacts, new European legislation and Government targets so we need to look for the best way to treat this waste, using it as a valuable resource wherever possible.

Landfill isn’t a bottomless pit. Many sites are nearly full and we’re rapidly running out of space. As well as the environmental cost, there’s a financial one too. In 2004, council tax payers in Norfolk paid an average of £80 a year for all their household waste to be collected and disposed of. Rising landfill taxes and penalties could double this cost in the near future.

Norfolk County Council are currently considering the options for the future beyond landfill. Click here to find out more.

Back to top ^