Recycling Bring Banks

There is an extensive network of over 80 recycling bring banks throughout the district which collect the following materials:

Glass (Brown, Clear, Green) Plastic Bottles Paper (newspaper, junk mail, magazines and catalogues) Cans (aluminium and steel) Aluminium Foil Clothes Shoes
Please follow link to find out: Where your nearest recycling bring banks are sited and what can be recycle there? You can also visit one of the two main Household Waste Sites at Blandford or Shaftesbury.

How is it recycled and what is made from the materials

Glass

Glass is perfect for recycling – you can recycle it back into new bottles and jars over and over again, without its clarity deteriorating.  Glass is also recycled into ‘Processed sand’ – finely ground glass for filtration media or golf bunkers and in construction products such as bricks and concrete blocks.

Plastic Bottles

Plastics are sorted and then go through a process of ‘mechanical recycling’ which involve the melting, shredding or granulation of waste plastics.  At the moment in the UK most sorting for mechanical recycling is done by trained staff who manually sort the plastics into polymer type and/or colour.

Following sorting, the plastic is either melted down directly and moulded into a new shape, or melted down after being shredded into flakes and than processed into granules called regranulate.

Products made from recycled plastic included - plastic bottles, flooring and window frames, fencing and garden furniture, water butts, garden sheds and composters, fleeces and lots more

Paper (newspaper, junk mail, magazines and catalogues)

Paper is sorted, graded and delivered to a paper mill.  It is then ‘slushed’ into pulp and large contaminants removed.  It is screened, cleaned and de-inked through a number of processes until it is suitable for papermaking.   It is then ready to be made into paper.

Aluminium Cans

Aluminium can be recycled over and over again – and the more we recycle the less aluminium ore we have to mine!

Aluminium cans are shredded and any coloured coating removed, the shreds are melted down in giant furnaces and the molten metal is poured into ingot casts and chilled to set.  Each ingot contains around 1.6 million cans, and ingots are taken to mills and rolled into foil to make more cans.   A used can takes only 6-8 weeks to be recycled and appear back on the shelves!

Steel Cans

Steel is magnetic and machines can sort domestic waste metals in large volumes before it is reprocessed.  Waste steel is melted down with iron ore and limestone, the liquid metal is poured into a mould and cooled.  When cool, the new steel is chopped into blocks, recycled steel has a very high resale price.  The range of possible uses for recycled steel is enormous. That’s because steel can be infinitely recycled, and because it’s such a widely used material.  You’ll find steel in incredibly diverse products, Bicycle frames, Pipes, Train tracks and Ship hulls.

Aluminium Foil

Aluminium foil is recovered differently, and when recycled most of it is used to make cast components for cars – like cylinder heads and engine blocks or made into new foil.

Textiles and Shoes

Almost any type of wearable textile can re-use and recycled, including T-Shirts, Shoes, Belts... even Curtains.  Textiles unsuitable for re-use are recycled, cottons and linen are cut down to be re-used as industrial wipes.  Materials such as wool are 'pulled' and made into fresh yarn, or re-used as felt for stuffing upholstery.