Once a week, we all make sure that our recycling has been split up into the proper boxes ready to get taken away. This small act helps in just a minuscule way to do our bit for the environment. But what happens to all this waste once it’s been taken away?
Plastic is notoriously hard to recycle. In fact, plastic bottles can take up to 450 years to decompose! Because of this fact, some ingenuity has to be injected into the process of reusing plastics. Some bottles will be melted and turned into new products like carpets and clothing and some will be reused as more bottles after they’ve been processed.
After you’ve popped your old glass bottles into the recycling box and it’s been taken away, they are then split into different colours and washed to remove any and all imperfections. The glass is then crushed and melted and then turned into a new glass or jar. Some glass products might be taken and reused to create decorations for the home.
Aluminium food and drink cans go through a very similar process to glass. They’re first washed and sorted ready to be reused, they’re then turned into molten aluminium via a furnace and moulded into ingots. Those ingots can then be rolled out into flat sheets and turned back into new cans. It takes only 6 weeks for the waste to be turned back into new cans and sent back to the shops!
Paper and cardboard is picked up from the recycling box and taken to a recycling plant where it is washed to remove all inks. Once clean, this solution becomes a slurry which can then be made into new sheets of paper by adding different materials to the mixture. This can then be cut up and sent back to the shops!
Devon Contract Waste: Experts in Recycling For Commercial Organisations
Moving away from the home, if you’re a business and you are in need of waste disposal and recycling service, you’ve come to the right place. At Devon Contract Waste, we’ve been a leading commercial waste management organisation since 1989.
A core ethos of our firm is responsibility, which is why we have championed a ‘Zero to Landfill’ policy. This allows us to save resources and reduce our carbon footprint.
To find out more, contact us today. You can find us at our Exeter head office at Enviro Hub, Marsh Barton Road, Exeter, Devon, EX2 8NU, call us on 01392 690 193 or email us at sales@dcw.co.uk.