What happens in the recycling station?

GermanicGalore

HI everyone,

I wonder, what happens in the recycling station with our waste?
A friend of mine said that if they find only one item in your bin that is not recyclable they throw out the whole lot. Really?

Would the station not have some sort of clever sorting mechanism to sort out stuff they cannot recycle? And if they do, what happens with it? Does it get sent somewhere that can or does it just end up on a land fill?

I'm somewhat surprised that greyhound says they only recycle plastics of type 1,2 and 5. What happens if I through a 0 or 7 in there? It's a bit annoying considering that the recycle bin has no lifting charge, but the black bin is 7eur!

A colleague said to me today that he throws every plastic into the bin, he thinks it's ridiculous that they wouldn't be able to take care of all the recycling, even if they had to ship it off. He argued that there is no reason for making us pay more because they put cheap facilities in place, and that we should have a system in place like Poland has, where households have one bin, everything goes in there and the waste station does the sorting automatically.

I am a bit confused now about the worth of recycling and about going exactly by the book....

Many thanks for your comments.

hardCopy

I know I saw something on TV about automated sorted of different materials.

I think it was on "How Do They Do It?" or similar. They used a clever series of machines to bounce, vacuum and shake different materials off a conveyor and into separate areas for treatment. I can't remember whether they were able to sort the various plastic types though.

Co Kildare abu

Dear Germanic Galore,

Interesting question that you raise about what happens to our stuff when we send it on to the recyling companies. My concern is what to do with old electrics that are no longer in us. I don't live in an area where there is a recycling centre for electrics. What to do with my old pre SAOR view tv? I have a shed with things that I refuse to throw out like old lamps, kettle, small fridge.

Aninha Medeiros

Hello guys,
There is an organisation in Dublin that takes your old electrics. They drive to your house and pick up. I used them to take my fridge and an old scanner. I think they will drive to places near Dublin too. It is an Irish charity called New Communities Partnership.