East Devon invests £420,000 in new recycling machinery
High quality recycling now being transported to processing plants across the UK and Europe
East Devon District Council has invested in a giant sorting and baling machine to separate more than 5,000 tonnes of recycling a year collected from residents across the district.
The council’s new machine at the Greendale Resources Recycling Centre has been built specifically to handle the high amounts of recycling that East Devon residents collect every day. Fifteen months ago the district was recycling 43% of its waste every week. Today, residents recycle an average 57% of their waste every week thanks to a new service introduced last year.
Using the latest technology, including a system of magnets and conveyors, the machine carefully sorts the recycling into individual types of materials and efficiently packs them in to bales. The bales are then sent direct from East Devon to processors across the UK and Europe to be turned in to new items. The quality of the sorted materials produced by this sophisticated plant maximises the value of the materials that are being recycled and means the council can make the most of the excellent effort residents are putting into recycling in East Devon.
To keep the machine working as efficiently as possible and help even further, the council asks residents not to put cans in bags and to rinse plastics before they go in the recycling sack.
Prior to the new plant being installed, mixed materials collected in the green sacks were transported loose and unsorted to Avonmouth, but only eight tonnes could fit in each lorry. Now that the materials are compacted and baled, up to 20 tonnes can be transported in a single load saving money and carbon emissions.
Cllr Andrew Moulding, Chairman of East Devon District Council, and John Scanlon, SUEZ recycling and recovery UK’s Chief Operating Officer jointly cut the ribbon to open the new machine.
Cllr Moulding said: “The installation of this new recycling plant is the latest step in the modernisation of East Devon’s recycling service.
“The development and success of our recycling service has been the result of great teamwork by the East Devon and SUEZ partnership and the remarkable response by our residents who have embraced it so well.
“The recycling rate of 57% that we have now achieved has put us in the leading group of local authorities in England and enhanced East Devon’s reputation locally, regionally and nationally.”
Mr Scanlon added: “From the recycling industry’s perspective, the quality of the materials from East Devon is very high thanks to the hard work by residents and our crews. SUEZ’s vision is to live in a society where there is no more waste and East Devon, with its new recycling machine, is making very positive steps towards achieving this.”
