Why is one waste collected separately, and the other is not? Keep reading more about Waste Management Sheffield services for usefulness and fables of waste separation. The starting point for separate collection is that there are valuable materials
in the waste that can be reused. As a result, fewer new raw materials, energy
and money are needed to make new materials. This is good both for your wallet
and for the environment also: the municipality's waste collection fee can be
reduced.
Waste Management Sheffield
Tips for separating waste properly
- Be careful when separating your waste. For example, do not throw light bulbs into the bottle bank and do not throw plastic at the gft. And take out leaflets from the plastic foil before you put them on the old paper. Only then can your waste be processed properly.
- Use a transparent garbage bag to collect your plastic, cans, and drinks. This allows the waste processor to see better if there is no waste that does not belong there.
Recycle better than burn
Waste recycling has four significant advantages over incineration:
- It saves resources: for example trees for paper, petroleum for plastic, (rare) metals for appliances and tin.
- Agricultural land can then be used to grow food.
- Recycling usually costs (much) less energy than raw materials and making new materials. For example, 20 times more energy is required for new aluminum than for the remelting of old aluminum. The quality of recycled materials is usually just as good.
- Recycling creates less greenhouse gases.
What
happens to the separated waste?
Many people do not know what happens to all the separated waste. There are rumors that the separately collected waste ends up on a big heap. That is not true. Glass, paper and cardboard, vegetables, fruit and garden waste (gft), small chemical waste, plastic, tin, drinking suits, electrical appliances, bulky garden waste, construction waste, textiles and residual waste are all processed separately. Separate waste that is very polluted (by which we mean: where there are a lot of things that are not included), can still be incinerated.
Waste = valuable
Waste contains many valuable materials that can be reused. Sometimes you can reuse something in its entirety, such as second-hand clothing or furniture. Other types of waste are disassembled so that the materials can be reused separately. For example, the zinc from old batteries is used to make zinc gutters. The waste that cannot be recycled is almost all shipped to the incinerator. The combustion provides energy for electricity or district heating. The remains that remain after incineration (which we call 'slag') can be used in part for the construction of roads. Less than half a percent of household waste (eg, non-recyclable construction and demolition waste) is deposited; that happens in a responsible way.
Condition = clean waste
In order to be able to really use separated waste again, there must not be too many things that do not belong to it. For example, it does not work to recycle paper if there is a lot of plastic in it, or if the paper is greasy. That's why boxes of takeaway pizzas are not allowed on the old paper. The recycling company must therefore first remove the contamination from the separately collected waste before they can process the waste. That costs time and money.If segregated waste is too polluted, it cannot be reused and ends up in the incinerator. That is why it is important that you work carefully when separating waste. At Which waste for each type of waste what is and is not allowed, from kitchen waste to the glass container.
