Tips for Recycling

In Material Recycling Facilities (MRF’s) all the material collected go through mechanical and manual processes to separate the various materials into their respective component bins. Thereafter they are bulked up for onward reprocessing.

Glass is not collected in Carmarthenshire through the kerbside service because of the very abrasive nature of the material damaging the mechanical equipment and the dangers to the people who have to handle it at the kerbside and in the MRF.

The process we deploy mechanically opens the blue sack and allows the material to go through a trommel (a circular screen).This separates all the material of less than 180mm diameter which fall through onto an inclined ballistic separator (a sloping walking floor) which causes paper and card to climb to the top and bottles and cans roll to the bottom. The ballistic separator allows everything less than 55mm to fall through as ‘fines’.

The two pieces of equipment working together deliver all of the collected kerbside material in three ‘streams’

The first (from the bottom of the ballistic separator) delivers cans and plastic bottles.
The second (from the top of the ballistic separator) delivers small pieces of card, paper and plastic.
The third (from the end of the trommel) delivers large pieces of paper, card and cardboard.

Each of these lines requires people to remove the contamination and the various materials. Magnets are used to recover steel cans and a similar piece of equipment (called an eddy current separator) is used to recover aluminium cans.

By constantly dealing with the end market for materials and seeing on a continuous basis the materials collected from the kerbside we believe we are ideally placed to bring timely and practical advice to residents and businesses to improve recycling rates in Carmarthenshire.

Tips for Better Recycling

‘The cleaner and drier the kerbside material the better’

Please distinguish between good recyclate and poor material such as packaging film, wrapping material, paper towels and small pieces of material.

	Paper	The biggest challenge we currently have is to recover the ever increasing amounts of shredded paper collected as it falls through all of the processes in the MRF. If possible please bundle in smaller paper bags (compared to the blue sack) or take to one of the many bring sites in the County. If the paper is not of a confidential nature it does not need tearing into small pieces, whole sheets are easier to recover
	Small plastic bottles and caps	Please leave all plastic caps screwed onto the bottle .To reduce the volume of milk bottles simply twist and replace the cap. ’Actimel’ type bottles are a problem because of their size. They are however made of the same plastic as milk bottles and could be pushed inside or ‘bundled’ with tape.
	Envelopes	It’s the glue and translucent window that has caused problems for the paper mills The processes are getting better at being able to cope with the adhesives but ideally the translucent window should be removed prior to recycling.
	Brown cardboard	This material is a key component in materials recovery as it allows mixing of the card used in cereal type boxes to be recovered. Please place all of your brown cardboard loose with your blue bag collection service or take to the nearest Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC).
	Polystyrene	We compress polystyrene to a 40^th of its volume and send to reprocessing firms to make other products .Please place it in your blue bag or take to your nearest HWRC.
	Steel Cans	Place all lids (including jam jar lids) inside the can and compress
	Aluminium Foil and Trays	This material should be rigid and washed clean. All foil and trays which hold food residue is rejected
	Pots and Pans	Please do not include your pots and pans in your blue bags, they are bulky and cause damage to our machinery. We are happy to receive them at the nearest Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC).
	Pet food	The blister packs which are very similar to small aluminium trays are the worst metal contaminant a MRF have to deal with. The material is a mixture of plastics and resins and is rejected by all aluminium reprocessors. In the short term we ask that you dispose as residual waste (black sacks) .Longer term the supermarkets and the pet food industry needs to change this form on packaging.