Everything goes to landfill, doesn't it?

Well, actually, NO.

In the UK more than 95% of the recycling collected is recycled.

The remaining 5% is often not recycled because the wrong materials have been put out for collection or are too dirty to be reprocessed. The recycled material is used to make new products:

• All the newsprint (the paper for newspapers) manufactured in the UK is now made from 100% recycled

• The UK currently recycles around 50% of container glass (like bottles and jars). That’s doubled over the last 5 years

• Any glass product can use up to 80% recycled material

• It takes about 25 2-litre drinks bottles to make one adult size fleece jacket.

So where does waste go?

It depends on the material and the way it is collected from your house. If it is not sorted into separate materials by your refuse collectors, your recycling will go to a materials recycling facility to be sorted. The sorted materials are sold to reprocessing companies who turn them back into raw materials; these are then used to make new products.

• Aluminium cans are shredded, melted down, and the molten aluminium poured into moulds to make ingots. These are then sold to companies who make new products such as car and plane parts, or maybe the can containing your next drink!

• Glass is crushed and added to the mix of raw materials that make up new glass containers. The materials are melted in a furnace, and then moulded or blown to make new bottles and jars. Glass is also used to make unusual stuff - it's an ingredient used to make new bricks and a filtration media for swimming pools.

• Sorted plastics have a wide variety of uses and can be shredded, washed, melted and moulded into new products such as new bottles, garden furniture or fleece jackets.

• When paper gets to the recycled paper mill it is added to water and turned into pulp. It is screened, cleaned and where required, de-inked until it is suitable for making new paper products such as newsprint, cardboard, packaging, tissue and office items. It can take just seven days for a newspaper to go through the recycling process and be transformed into recycled newsprint which is used to make the majority of Britain's national daily newspapers.

• Steel is a brilliant product to recycle, as it can be reprocessed again and again. Steel cans are melted down in a furnace and combined with other raw materials like molten iron. The hot steel is then cast into solid slabs which can be rolled into foil to make new cans.

Recycle for Wiltshire have a series of informative videos outlining recycling in Wiltshire.

Landfill Sites
DEFRA, predicts that England will run out of landfill capacity for household rubbish by 2020, with many sites expected to be full long before then.

Black box collection
Kerbside collections made fortnightly to every vehicle accessible home in the county, Nearly 43,000 tonnes of materials are collected for recycling and composting from the kerbside in Wilts every year. 99% of collected materials is used for recyling, ie only 1% has to be separated out at the sorting plant and put into landfill. Kerbside collection deals with 3,600 tonnes of materials per week.

Household Recyling Centres
There are 10 in Wiltshire. Recycling a wide range of materials, from paper/card to engine oil and batteries. In Summer they open until 7pm on Wed and Thurs. There are 300 mini-recycling (local bring sites) with a range of bins.

Paper
23,000 tonnes of paper are recycled in Wiltshire every year.Paper can (in theory) be recyled 15 times. 75 to 80% of the pulp goes to make new paper, the remainder is burned and provides 17% of the enery used at the plant.

Glass
10,200 tonnes of glass are recycled in Wiltshire every year. 1 bottle makes 1bottle! The energy saved from recycling 1 bottle can power a tv for 15mins. Any glass put into landfill will be there in 2000 years it will not disintegrate at all! Glass can be recycled again and again and again.

Cans and Foil
Over 2,600 tonnes of cans and foil are recycled in Wiltshire every year. Recycled Aluminium goes to make new cans. Recycled Steel is found in everything from paperclips,to cars, bridges and train tracks as well as food and drink cans.

Textiles
Nearly 1,500 tonnes of textiles and shoes are recycled in Wiltshire every year. Good quality clothes are recycled and sent to Africa. Woollen jumpers are made into new yarn. Damaged clothes are made into cleaning cloths for indusrtry.

Garden Waste
30,000 tonnes of green waste are processed in Wiltshire every year, from household waste centres and roadside collection.

Waste Electrical and Electronic equipment
Nearly 28,000 fridges and freezers were recycled last year in Wiltshire. More than 1,000 TV's and PC monitors are recycled every week. 100% recycling rate on computers, ie, nothing goes to scrap, ie into landfill.

VILLAGE PETITION Please support Neston Recycling Group (NRG) in their efforts to get the council to either collect more types of recycling or supply the following recycling bins in Neston village: PLASTIC, CARDBOARD AND TETRA PAK. At the present time, to recycle the above items, all households in Neston have to transport these items to local recycling centres. This creates a barrier to full recycling and creates a lot of unnecessary CO2 emissions from all of these car journeys. Please do take time to sign up to the petition by clicking on the following link: Neston Village Petition All you will need to do is read the statement and, if you agree with it, provide your name and email address. The statement on the petition reads: We, the undersigned, would like the council to provide extra recycling facilities for Plastic, Cardboard and Tetra Pak for the village of Neston. This would increase the amount of recycling carried out in the village, and significantly reduce CO2 emissions. Many thanks for your support.

Please go to our new online Corsham Community Area Rethink Rubbish Directory. Thanks to funding from the Millenium Awards and assistance from the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust we have created the Corsham Community Area Rethink Rubbish Directory. This is your local A-Z guide about what items can be reused and recycled locally. Please Click here to visit the directory.