Our old blue wheelie bins - what happens to them?

THE NEW BLUE BIN SERVICE in Holderness should now be operational with all households having received a letter from the council informing them of the start of the scheme. You can now recycle glass, a wider range of plastics and Tetra Pak cartons in the blue bins.

Most residents will have exchanged smaller blue bins for larger, 240 litre bins to help them recycle as much as possible. But what happened to the old blue bins? We put this question to the Wastewatchers at the East Riding Council:

What are you going to do with the old blue bins? 

They will be recycled into pellets and reused. Once the old smaller blue bins go through the process outlined below they will be made into new wheelie bins.

The recycling process for most plastics is a heat based process where the plastic recyclate is melted down and either reformed into new product or compounded with additives and colourants and pelletised into a high quality raw material that can then be used to manufacture new products. Before these heat processes can be used it is usual to have to reduce the plastic waste down in size. This is generally done by one of the following processes:-

Shredding - Shredding is a quick and efficient way of reducing large items of plastic into a manageable size. The process involves a spinning rotor which rips the plastic apart. The resulting output is an irregular shaped, roughly cut - approx. 60mm (can be smaller) - product that is generally still too large to use into a heat based compounding or thermoforming process.

Granulation – This process is similar to shredding, whereby spinning blades cut the plastic components into irregular shaped pieces usually 10-12mm in diameter. Unlike shredding however, the use of grids in the grinding process allow us the plastic recycler to control the resulting size of the reground, which can then be used as a raw material for subsequent heat based processes.

Blending – This allows the plastic recycler to create a formula for a required specification from a selection of plastics of the same type but possibly with different characteristics or from different sources. The purpose of blending is to create a homogenous batch of plastic which will produce a consistent quality recycled plastic compound.

For more information on Council recycling - visit the Target 45+ website.

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Brown bin recycling success

MORE THAN 4,400 TONNES OF WASTE; garden waste, food waste and cardboard, was sent for composting in June due to East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s successful roll out of the new brown-bin collection services.

Councillor Symon Fraser, the Council's portfolio holder for environment, housing and planning, said: “This is a brilliant result by our residents. It shows just how enthusiastic our residents are when you compare that 4,400 tonnes with the 3,800 tonnes collected from the brown bins in June last year.”

The monthly recycling rate is 55 per cent, meaning that East Riding households are recycling and composting more than half their waste.

The monthly recycling rate is based on the waste collected from wheelie bins, the 10 household waste recycling sites and the 140 recycling sites across the East Riding.

The council’s roll out of brown caddies across the area is now complete and the recycling figure is expected to increase slightly over the summer months.

To check what can be put in the brown bins, visit the council’s waste website, www.target45plus.org.uk

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Graham Stuart MP criticised after contractors surface private road to his home

BEVERLEY AND HOLDERNESS MP GRAHAM STUART has received lots of attention in the national and local media after council contractors resurfaced the road leading to the MP's house for free.

Articles in The Telegraph, The Mail and The Mirror and in the Hull Daily Mail have reported on criticisms of the MP after his wife, Anne, asked contractors working for East Riding Council to resurface part of the road leading to their home. The work, estimated at a cost of around £2,500, was completed using left over tarmac and waste materials which might otherwise have been given to a farm as waste products. 

On his website Graham Stuart has praised the initiative of his wife:

“My wife saw the road workers on Hengate and told a workman that if they had any spare tarmac they would be welcome to put it in the potholes of Seven Corners Lane. The workman said that they might, as it could cost the company money if they had to dump it."

“My wife cycled off and on returning home was delighted to see that they had laid a path of tarmac on the worst stretch of the lane. At no point did my wife identify herself to the workmen, give her name or mention who she was married to. I’m pleased my wife had the inspiration to ask and am glad it suited the company to dispose of its excess material in this environmentally friendly way. At no cost to anyone it will now help residents, walkers and members of the tennis club who all use Seven Corners Lane."

It would seem that the issue here, is not the actions of our local MP who happens to have a wife that uses her initiative, but it is ensuring that all the useable materials available to a public contractor are used carefully and economically for the public benefit.

Our definition of "waste products" - in this case the surplus tarmac, other materials and labour time of the workers - needs to be looked at more carefully and changed to suit the economically difficult times we are living through. The waste products from the Hengate roadworks may have been given to a local farmer to dispose off, used to fill potholes, or used productively in the area in which the workers were operating.

In this case it would seem that local area option - completed at the request of a conscientious good neighbour - was the right one.

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East Riding Record 54% Recycling Rate

EAST RIDING RESIDENTS recycled and composted a record 54 per cent of their household waste in April.

This percentage is the highest monthly figure ever achieved in the East Riding according to the Council and includes the first collections of food waste and cardboard in the brown bins in Holderness, Driffield and Bridlington.

The total amount of waste collected last month from across the council’s 10 household waste recycling sites, the 140 bring sites and the kerbside collections was 18,304 tonnes, compared with 17,849 tonnes in April of last year.

Last month, 3,759 tonnes of waste was collected from the East Riding’s brown bins, which included the first food waste collections in Holderness, Driffield and Bridlington. This tonnage was thirty five per cent higher than the amount collected from the brown bins in the previous month, March.

Councillor Symon Fraser, portfolio holder for environment, housing and planning at the East Riding Council, said: “This is an outstanding achievement by all residents. It goes to show that the collection of food waste and cardboard in the brown bins is just what our residents wanted. Once the roll out is completed towards the end of June, we are expecting to keep even more of this waste out of landfill, saving our taxpayers the increasing cost of landfill taxes, while protecting the environment".

Find out more about Waste and Waste Management at www.target45plus.org.uk.

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Waste Management - Procurement event

EAST RIDING and Hull City Councils are jointly holding a one-day event for waste management companies.

The event on Thursday, 9 June at The Guildhall, Hull, will be for local, regional, national and international companies interested in tendering for the councils’ future waste contracts.

The event will also enable the councils to identify potential suppliers and develop general market knowledge. It will also allow potential service providers to gain knowledge of the councils’ requirements.

There will be presentations from both councils about their joint sustainable waste management strategy, followed by an open question and answer session. Individual meetings will be held with interested companies.

The joint strategy is based on both councils working together to attain better value for money by sharing waste facilities.

Issued by Gillian Pattison, East Riding of Yorkshire Council
Tel: 01482 391450
Email: Gillian.Pattison@eastriding.gov.uk

Image: eRiding.net

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