Milton Keynes Recycling Facility
Photos taken in 2007
 

Material for recycling collected at the kerbside or from the City Council's 'bring banks' (skips for paper, glass, tins, etc in car parks) is now taken to a new facility at Enstone.  However, this is run by the same company that manages the Milton Keynes facility and the paper, plastic and metal sorting processes are the same.

Bay for incoming material

Paper being checked for contaminants

About 95% of what arrives at the MK facility is sold for re-use.  About 3% is used for 'energy from waste' (incinerators fuelling heating), and the small residue goes to landfill.

Baled plastic bottles
 

Before being baled, bottles and cans go through an automated sorting process that uses, among other things, magnets, paddles and jets of air.  The conveyor belts move swiftly (about 260 cm per second) and the whole facility processes around 50 to 60 tonnes of waste per hour.

'Contaminants' (items that have been wrongly included) have to be removed by hand, so it's clearly better for those doing the sorting, if the items have been washed before being put into your blue wheelie/recycling boxes. 

The general level of cleanliness of the material is surprisingly good.

  Baled tin cans

  Paper being baled

The plant at Enstone also handles glass, tetrapaks (fruit juice cartons) and aerosols.

See also Oxford City Council website:
 Where Recyclables Go

Bars, restaurants and pubs currently throw away 600,000 tonnes of glass every year, with most of it ending up in landfill. 

Source:  Recycle now website