If you live in South Kesteven, Mid UK’s recycling centre near Grantham is where the recycling you put in your grey bin goes, writes Chris Wood on behalf of Stamford Climate Action Group.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s one of the largest recycling processing plants in the country and this month we took a trip to see what really happens after our recycling leaves the kerb.<\/p>\n
We saw 14 optical sensors and 140 conveyor belts sorting recycling into glass, plastics and metals. Items that should not be in there are removed, and people pick out items that the machines cannot detect.<\/p>\n
Pictured at the recycling centre are Chris Wood, Jane Bateman, Amanda Wheeler, Yvette Diaz-Munoz and Katherine Wiid. Photo: Supplied<\/p>\n
Your recycling is then turned into bails and taken away to be turned into something new – plastics can become clothing, garden furniture or toys. Glass is used to make new bottles or windows. Metals are used to make new cans or even bikes!<\/p>\n
Most glass, paper, plastics and metals can be recycled, but there are some common things people put in the grey bin that they can\u2019t recycle:<\/p>\n
* Food and liquids contaminate other items they end up mixed with, making all the items unable to be recycled, so make sure you rinse your recycling.<\/p>\n
* Clothes and textiles can\u2019t be recycled in household recycling. And worse, they wrap around the machines causing issues. But you can take them to some charity shops, drop off points or the local recycling centre.<\/p>\n
The Mid UK Recyling Centre where South Kesteven waste goes. Photo: Supplied<\/p>\n
* Vapes, gas canisters and batteries can cause fires or explosions. They\u2019re taken by some shops and by your local recycling centre, and you can tie household batteries in a bag to the handle of your household bin for collection, just don\u2019t put them inside the bin.<\/p>\n
* Use the take back schemes at supermarkets for plastic bags or other soft plastics.<\/p>\n
* Nappies, dirty tissues or sanitary products cannot be recycled, that\u2019s disgusting!<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re not sure where to take an item for recycling, you can use the tool at www.recyclenow.com to find out – you\u2019ll be surprised at what can be recycled!<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll share more advice and information about our visit and about recycling on our social media – follow Stamford Climate Action Now on Instagram, Facebook or Linkedin to find out more and ask us anything about your recycling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you live in South Kesteven, Mid UK’s recycling centre near Grantham is where the recycling you put…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3843],"tags":[171892,171894,728,122687,609,391,70,171893,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-530386","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-bourne","9":"tag-deepings","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-grantham","12":"tag-human-interest","13":"tag-opinion","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-stamford","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115444037884989544","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}