Contaminants

There are a few things that frequently get put into the recycling that shouldn't. They need to go into the rubbish bin. This is because they either cannot be processed into a reusable form or, because of how they were made, the separate components of them cannot be split up in a way that means they can be used again.

Pizza boxes

Why not?

It is because the card comes into direct contact with the food and gets greasy as well as having bits of uneaten food stuck to it.

Why is this bad?

Paper doesn't get heated when it is recycled so grease and oil aren't burnt off.

It is washed, but this still won't remove the oil from the paper fibres.

When it gets pulped this oil can spread through the whole batch coating the fibres and making them shorter, meaning either it will only make low grade paper which is hard to sell or the lot will have to be thrown away.

Because of this we cannot tip recycling containing takeaway pizza boxes at our recycling processor as they will refuse the load.

Keep your recycling clean and put takeaway pizza boxes in the rubbish bin.

Takeaway drinks cups

Why not?

Takeaway cups are made from card and a plastic film laminated together. The two are very hard to separate.

Why is this bad?

When paper and card are recycled they are pulped to separate out the fibres. The plastic film on drinks cups stops this from happening and can clog up the recycling machinery. This is why recycling reprocessors don't want them as they lower the quality of the paper and card they sell.

Because of this we cannot tip recycling that contains takeaway drinks cups at our recycling processors as they will refuse the load.

Keep your recycling clean and put takeaway drinks cups in the rubbish bin.

Cartons and Tetra Pak

Why not?

Food and drink cartons are made from card, metal foil and plastic film all laminated together. It is very hard and expensive to separate them again.

Why is this bad?

Because it costs so much to separate the three layers into reusable materials not many recyclers will do this. This means it's hard to sell cartons as part of a card and paper mix, they lower the quality of the product. It costs money to separate the cartons out which means it's then more expensive for us to dispose of our recycling.

Because no one wants to buy them, if we tip recycling containing cartons at our recycling processor they will refuse the load.

Keep the quality of our card recycling good and put food and drink cartons in the rubbish bin.