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Here’s how recycling works
• IN reply to your reader who wrote in to ask about the recycling that is collected from her street each week (Who sorts recycling? March 22), here’s what happens.
We ask residents to put all of their recyclable materials out together in their green box or bag – they do not need to separate it out. This is because we collect useful materials using a method called ‘co-mingled recycling’.
This means that the materials are collected mixed together and compacted in the recycling lorry. This looks similar to a dustcart but has a recycling sign on the side, so you know it’s taking your materials away to be recycled, not sent to landfill. We do it this way so that a greater range and volume of materials can be recycled; and it is much quicker too so there is less chance a truck will obstruct the road.
The recyclable materials from all over the borough are then taken to a local recycling depot and on to a site called a materials recovery facility, to be sorted using a combination of high-tech equipment and hand. Once sorted, the different types of materials are baled up separately and sent to manufacturers who make it into new products.
If you have any more questions about recycling in Camden, please have a look at the council’s website: www.camden.gov.uk/recycling or by call the Recycling Team on 020 7974 6914.
Cllr Mike Greene
Executive Member for Environment, Camden Council
q A reader asks how Camden sorts refuse – and separates card, plastic, glass etc.
I have seen technical documents from inside the industry which make it clear that most refuse is still sorted by hand.
Very probably this is why refuse is sent to China for recycling, where sorting can be done by very poorly paid workers, and very possibly by slave labour in prisons.
Would Camden like to re-assure that this is not the case? Or is it a case of out of sight out of mind?
BARRY FOX
Belsize Grove, NW3
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