Recycling for Students

Those items cannot be accepted at present. As pointed out these comprise of metal and plastic that cannot easily be separated at a materials recycling facility. Viridor is constantly looking to expand the list of recyclable materials that can be accepted at its facilities so as technology develops, those and other type of materials may be accepted for recycling.

There is a value to recycling, as it can be sold onto manufacturers to be made into new things.  Any income generated from selling the recycling is put back into the service provided, so helping to keep Council Tax to a minimum.  

Under the previous contract, the Council were paid a fixed, low rate for the recycling.  Whilst this gave security through a guaranteed income when the value of recycling was low, it didn't take into account times when the value was higher.  

The new contract for the sale of recycling to Viridor has a fluctuating value associated with the materials, so that when the market value is high, the Council get more money for the materials, and when the value is low, we get less.  For security, there is a minimum value built into the contract, to ensure that we always get a reasonable payment for the materials.

The contract with Viridor also requires them to provide, at their expense, a transfer facility so that the Council is only required to travel to Mountsorrel to tip the waste collected.  Under the previous contract, each vehicle had to travel to Coalville two or three times a day to tip.  This change represents a big saving in terms of fuel (both financial and environmental savings) and time.

The cost of introducing green bins has been met by Serco, the Council's waste collection contractor.  These represent a long-term investment with a one-off payment for bins, which is more cost effective over time than the continual supply of recycling bags.

Plastic film such as supermarket carrier bags and LDPE sacks from commingled collection rounds are removed at the front end of the process. The Crayford facility utilises bag splitters, that have a rotating ripping drum that splits the bags and empties the contents. The film is then removed manually from the remainder of the recyclable stream.

The recycling is sorted by Viridor at their plant in Kent, using machinery.  To view films of this process, please follow this link to You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DAk8m7sVM4

Charnwood Borough Council undertook a competitive tender process to find out the most efficient and cost-effective solution for the processing of recyclables collected across the borough. After the council’s comprehensive assessment, Viridor's tender successfully met the council’s criteria and proved to be the preferred option.

The Crayford MRF facility is located in close proximity to a number of its reprocessing partners, so although the front end movement of material from Charnwood to Crayford may be seen as a long journey, the movement from Crayford to the next stage of reprocessing is in many cases reduced. An example of this is that Viridor trades with Aylesford Newsprint Ltd, a large recyclable newsprint mill in Kent, which is only approximately 20 miles from the Crayford facility.

No cleaning is completed at Crayford of the recyclable commodities. Crayford is the first stage of the reprocessing process, sorting the recyclable materials into individual grades. Materials are then baled and sent to dedicated reprocessors per material stream. These reprocessing facilities will often employ washing and drying facilities into their processes to de-label and remove contamination of products.