Why can plastic materials such as yoghurt pots, food trays, plastic film, etc be collected and recycled?
There are over 200 types of plastics, all made up of different materials, and we can’t recycle them all together because the different polymers have different properties. For now, the two main types are the PET and HDPE plastics that make up plastic bottles. If we were to contaminate the recycling process with other types of plastics, it would compromise the end product and manufacturers wouldn’t want it. What happens to my recycling once it is collected? Materials from your brown bin are taken to a Material Recycling Facility (MRF), in Barnsley where the materials are separated. They are then sent to different plants in the UK for processing. Materials from your blue bin are taken to North Wales where the Cardboard, Paper and cartons are separated and recycled in different ways. What do the collected materials get made into? Newspapers, magazines, cartons etc are recycled together and used in the production of newsprint. It takes only seven days, for your old newspaper to be recycled
