Burton Joyce Climate Action Group
Do you know what should go in your green bin?
I was more than a little confused- but no longer, having recently attended a talk entitled “Green Bin it Better “ organised by the BJCAG.
Lesley, a recycling expert from Veolia, gave a lively talk about what to put in our green bins ( and what not to!) and also showed a short film about what happens at Veolia’s Materials Recovery Centre in Mansfield.
A quiz revealed to us that no one in the audience was getting it 100% correct at the moment, leading to contamination and hence less recycling of the items we are carefully putting into our bins. 10-20% of everything received at the recovery centre is contaminated by the wrong materials or by food residue.
Paper is the most commonly recycled material with newspapers, cardboard, magazines, books and envelopes making up over 50%of recycled material. However, contaminated paper and card cannot be processed so please no pizza box bases smeared with cheese and tomato sauce !
Lesley told us that tins are a recycling success story with 95%of the tins and aerosol cans we put in our green bins being recycled. There’s a strong market for recycled tins because it is cheaper to recycle aluminium and steel tins than to make them from new. Just remember to give them a good rinse so the contents don’t cause contamination.
All plastic bottles are suitable, although the capture rate is less than 50% nationally. It’s recommended that once the bottle is rinsed and flattened that you put the lid back on (including milk bottle lids). The exceptions are pump action and spray top lids so please remove as they cannot be recycled.
One of the questions from the audience was about aluminium foil. Aluminium trays and foil cannot go in our green bins but can be recycled elsewhere. Use www.recyclenow.com to find out what you can recycle and where. I’ve used this site to find that our nearest collection point for foil is Lowdham Village Hall Carpark.
We all use a lot of soft plastic, carrier bags, bread wrappers etc and many in the audience were already aware that these can now be dropped off at the Co-op.
Getting recycling right can be a bit confusing but this talk made it much clearer.
“ If in Doubt, leave it Out”
Happy recycling Burton Joyce!
Sharon Meldrum
