What happens to my recycling?

After your bin has been emptied by our collection crews the rubbish doesn't just disappear, all waste has to go somewhere!

Once our collection vehicles are full the waste is taken to our transfer station in Bathgate. The lorries weights and waste types are recorded on the weighbridge and the material is then tipped into separate bays before being bulked into an articulated lorry (artic) and taken to material recovery facilities (MRF). By bulking the material at a central site this reduces the number of trips we have to make to the recycling facilities reducing our carbon footprint.  

Blue bins - Paper and card

Paper and card is currently taken to Smurfit Westrock which is a paper mill in Glasgow. Here they use your paper and card as raw materials for their paper mills and recycle them back into new paper and card used for packaging in their plants - your recycling can be back in use within a couple of weeks. You can see how they turn your rubbish into new products in their video below. The video is based in Kent but the same process is followed in Glasgow where West Lothian's material is processed.

Green bins - Plastic bottles, pots, tubs trays, tins, cans, aerosols and cartons

Green bin waste is taken to Biffa in Broxburn which is a materials recovery facility where all of the waste is sorted before being sent on for recycling.  When the artics arrive on site they tip the material in a large shed then the material is shovelled onto a conveyor belt where the first stage of the process is hand picking and removal of large items, mainly contamination, such as clothes, full bags, metal or other large items which should not be placed in this bin. The conveyor belt then takes the material to the trommel which is like a large rotating sieve that separates out small items like bottle caps. The remaining materials is then hand picked on the sorting line for specific materials such as plastic bottles, magnets and eddy currents are used to separate out steel cans and aluminium cans from the other materials. 

The separated materials are then baled and loaded into artic lorries for transport to buyers where they can be recycled into new products such as waster bottles into fleeces, cans back into new cans and milk bottles into traffic cones.

Brown bins - Food and garden waste

There are two stages to processing food and garden waste.  The pre-treatment process involves a visual inspection of the incoming waste before it is screened and any contamination removed by hand picking on a sorting line.  The material is then shredded and mixed with a dry woody material in preparation for composting. The mixed material is then sanitised in vessel using a vertical composting unit (VCU). Heat is generated inside the unit by microbes breaking down the waste and is then used to create a natural chimney effect drawing in cool air at the bottom.  Levenseat ensure that the temperature remains above 64.5C for a continuous 6 hours to ensure that the material is sanitised.

The material is then removed from the VCU and composted in the open air. Open air composting is done by forming long piles of the material called windrows which are turned once a week to aerate the soil.  After about 10 weeks the material is screened to remove large or unwanted material and is left to mature for a further 4 weeks.  The final material is then sold on to the local agricultural industry as a nutrient rich soul improver, reducing the need to use fertilisers.

Levenseat produce PAS 100 (compost quality standard) compliant compost from food and garden waste.

You will find more information about this process on the Levenseat website (opens new window).

Grey bins - Non-recyclable waste

Grey bins are for any waste which cannot be recycled, such as nappies, toothbrushes, unclean food packaging and polystyrene. Unfortunately there are situations where disposal of waste is the only option rather than reuse or recycling. Our grey bin material also goes to Levenseat, which has multiple waste management facilities on site to try and avoid, where possible, material being landfilled. 

The first stage of the process is to recover any recyclable material which has ended up in the grey bin, such as metal, cardboard, paper and plastics and ensure they are separated and sent to manufacturers for recycling. The remaining waste which can't be recycled is transferred from the recovery facility to the power plant where it is prepared into refuse derived fuel (RDF) through a gasification process. This involves heating the material at low oxygen and turning it into gas, the gas is then heated in a boiler producing steam which powers a turbine generating electricity. The electricity produced from the turbine is used to power the facilities onsite and exported to the national grid. The site has the capacity to generate enough electricity to power 25,000 homes through RDF.

You will find more detailed information about this process on the Levenseat website (opens new window).

Contamination 

What is contamination?

Contamination is any item present in the bin which shouldn't be there, such as nappies in the green bin. It can also be items which are covered in food residue, liquids such as unfinished juice bottles or unrinsed yogurt pots or recycling in plastic bags. If there's something in your bin that we can't accept as recyclable in that bin, we'll put a tag on the bin to let you know. As long as the item(s) is removed your bin will be emptied on your next scheduled collection day.

Why is contamination a problem?

As you can see from the above processes, there is no way to clean items at any of our recycling facilities as once the material has been squashed and compressed in the bin lorry and food etc is spread over more material, the damage has already been done. The sorting process to pick out contamination and bagged waste is also much more difficult and takes more time, energy and money to sort the materials. This means that a lot of material which could have been recycled ends up as non-recyclable waste and goes through the same process as the grey bin material, usually ending up as energy from waste or landfill.

This results in increased environmental impact through requiring more energy to process the material into RDF therefore a higher carbon footprint than recycling, increased greenhouse gas emissions and more space required in landfill sites. It also means that all of the effort and energy required to make these materials and grow food is wasted when they are thrown away. Scotland is working towards a more circular economy by reusing and recycling as much as we can so we keep these same materials in the cycle rather than using much more energy to make brand new items every time.

Further to the environmental impacts. disposal is a much more expensive option than reuse or recycling as not only more energy and processing is required to prepare the material for RDF or landfill but there is also tax required to be paid every time material is landfilled, currently between £8.65 and £130.75 per tonne, depending on the material being disposed of and the potential environmental impact. When you consider each of our collection vehicles can hold 10 tonnes of material and can be filled twice each in a day, 7 days a week - you can imagine how quickly that can add up! By sending material for disposal rather than recycling this means that the Council spends much more money to dispose of waste that could be better spent on local services for the community. 

How can we avoid contamination?

Everyone can do their part to help look after our local environment and ensure that money isn't wasted on landfill but is rather redistributed in the local community. All we need to do is put the right items in the right bins, empty food containers and give them a quick wipe or rinse before putting them in the bins and put all your recycling in the bins loose, not in plastic bags. By doing this we will all be helping ensure we can recycle as much as possible and reduce the amount of waste required for disposal.

We understand that knowing whether something can be recycled or not can be tricky at times, so here's some tips that might help:

• Items which are a mix of materials e.g. a plastic coat hanger with a metal hook, blister packs which are a mix of plastic and foil, these cannot be recycled in your green bin. While they have recyclable elements they can't be separated at the MRF and so should be disposed of in your grey bin or at a recycling centre.
• This is also true for crisps and sweet wrappers, while they are foil/plastic they can't be separated and should go in your grey bin or taken back to your supermarket who may have a recycling bin for soft plastics available.
• Just because we can accept metal cans and plastic bottles, doesn't mean we can accept all metal and all plastic. There are certain types of metal i.e. aluminium tins and cans, and some types of plastics i.e. bottles, tubs, trays, that can be recycled by our contractors. However, metal cutlery, frying pans, metal engines, pipes and hard plastics like basins, toys and buckets require a different process and should be taken to your local recycling centre. These are all items that we have seen come through our transfer station, please - no more toilet seats in the green bins!
• Don't worry too much about the recyclable logo on packaging. This is a generalised logo for what can usually be recycled by most local authorities in the UK. If you're unsure check our website or drop us a message and we can advise you on what is specific to West Lothian. We appreciate it is confusing that different areas have different recycling rules but the government are moving towards a standardised system across Scotland, it' just taking some time.

To find out what you can and can't recycle in each of your household bins you can check the Information on Bins and Recycling pages.