Asbestos
Unbroken sheets are disposed of safely by specialist contractor to a managed landfill site.
Bicycles
These are repaired by Jole Rider and distributed to developing countries and local community groups.
Books & CDs
These are collected by the British Heart Foundation and resold.
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Bric a Brac
These are collected by the Shaw Trust local charity and resold.
Car Batteries
Car Batteries are broken up in a huge crushing machine and then sorted into their different parts.
- The plastic is recycled made into many different products including Green Recycling boxes, furniture, paint trays, car parts, drainpipes and more cases for car batteries.
- The lead is melted down to make products such as more car batteries, guttering, and shields for X-ray machines in hospitals.
- The acid is treated and neutralised.
- The distilled water is purified and used again.
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Cardboard
The cardboard is recycled back into cardboard products such as cardboard packaging.
To find out what happens to the cardboard collected as part of the Cardboard & Garden Waste Collections, please go to What Happens to the Compost Materials.
Cooking Oil
Cooking Oil is recycled into Bio diesel, which can be used to fuel specially adapted vehicles. It may also be recycled into industrial lubricants.
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Electrical Items
Small and large electrical appliances are take to a plant in South Wales where they are broken down into their component parts and either reused or recycled.
The Sofa Project also collects large household appliances which are in good condition for repair and reuse where possible.
Engine Oil
The oil is decanted into a large holding tank where it is boiled up and left to settle. Any water is removed and the oil is then filtered. This process is repeated to produce a watery brown liquid that is used in furnaces at power stations and quarries as an alternative, recycled fuel
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Fridges & Freezers
If suitable, these may be refurbished and reused. Otherwise, the CFCs are removed from them and the metal is recycled.
Fluorescent Tubes
These are dismantled, the hazardous components removed and the other materials reused and recycled.
Food & Drinks Cartons
These are sent to Sweden where it is pulped and then the different materials are separated. Cardboard is used to make new paper/cardboard, plastic and aluminium is used either in furniture or burnt for energy and turned into more aluminium products.
Furniture & Appliances
These are collected by the SOFA Project and repaired and reused where possible.
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Gas Bottles
Where possible, these are taken back by their suppliers. Otherwise the valve is removed and the metal recycled.
Garden Waste
The garden waste is composted locally at sites near Keynsham & Marksbury and Frome. The material is shredded and put into large open air mounds called windrows, where it gradually turns into compost.
The finished product is sieved and sold to farmers and residents of Bath and North East Somerset. To find out about purchasing this compost, please go to Compost for Sale.
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Hazardous Waste
Hazardous waste and chemicals are disposed of safely by a specialist contractor.
Non Recyclable Bins
All the non recyclable material we collect is taken to landfill sites. Most of this waste is taken by road to Shortwood Landfill site in South Gloucestershire, but some is taken Calne, Wiltshire and some to Dimmer Landfill site in Somerset.
For further information go to What happens to the refuse.
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Recycling Banks
We have recycling banks for all the materials that we collect in the green box including paper, cans (inc aerosols), plastic bottles, foil, clothes and shoes, glass bottles and jars, batteries, car batteries, engine oil, spectacles, mobile phones, and toner and ink cartridges. To find out what happens to these materials, please go to What happens to the Green Box materials?
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Rubble & Soil
These are recycled and used as building materials and road aggregate. The soil is reused.
Scrap Metal
The metals are separated and recycled back into a wide variety of products from cans to bridges and aeroplane parts.
Shoes
These are collected for reuse
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Televisions & Computer Monitors
These are sent to South Wales where they are split into their component parts ready to be sent for recycling.
The plastic casing around the TVs is bulked up and sent to a plant in the UK for recycling. The copper wiring and circuit boards are sent to the nearest reprocessor in Belgium. The cathode ray tubes (CRT) inside the TV set are cut open and cleaned to remove the toxic coatings, and then sent to a recycling plant on the continent where they are used to create new CRTs.
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Timber
The timber is chipped and used to make chipboard or used to fuel power stations.
Tyres
The steel rims are extracted and recycled. The tyres are remoulded into more tyres or shredded and recycled into a range of products such as running tracks.