A common misconception today is that once your skip has been collected the rubbish is taken straight to landfill. However, in most instances, this is not the case. A good skip company will often operate from its own Waste Transfer Station, meaning that all the waste can be sorted, treated and processed leaving only a very small percentage going to landfill. Here at Haulaway, 99% of the waste we receive gets recycled!
What happens at the Waste Transfer Station?
1. Once your skip arrives at the transfer station it will be tipped and sorted. Any large, bulky items will be removed first and then the remaining rubbish will usually be put on a conveyor belt and manually sorted into different bays for each waste type. These may include cardboard, plastic, wood, metal and carpet. Soil, hardcore and green waste also get segregated for treating and processing.
2. Once the rubbish is sorted into its waste type it may need to be treated using a specialised piece of machinery. Some of the ways we treat our waste at Haulaway
are by shredding, screening, and baling it.
3. After the waste is treated accordingly it can be processed. Often it will be collected by another company and taken to an appropriate outlet. You can see what happens to the various waste types here at Haulaway:
Metals – taken to a local outlet where it gets recycled to steelworks, smelters and copper and aluminium refiners.
Wood – taken to outlets within the UK where it is used in biomass power plants to generate electricity. (Waste to Energy). It is also recycled into re-board and pellets.
Cardboard – taken to UK and global outlets where it is recycled back into cardboard. Cardboard can be recycled up to 7 times!
Hardcore/ Concrete – recycled here and made into aggregate such as crushed concrete 6F1 and 6F2.
Plasterboard – taken to an outlet within the UK where it is recycled. The raw components are then used for industrial machinery and to make new plasterboard.
Carpet – collected and exported to cement kilns where it gets made into a fuel used in cement.
Soil – 100% recycled here to local outlets as restoration soil, or screened for use in landscaping.
Plastics – Both soft and hard plastics are collected and then recycled here in the UK so it can be reused. Soft plastics such as films are remade into films, whilst hard plastics may be used by manufacturers of cars to make things such as the dashboard.
PVC Window Frames – Our window manufacturing partners shred the frames and then remake them into new window frames.
Green Waste – taken to a local outlet where it is used for composting.
