Over the last five years we’ve been on a journey at Wellington Waste. The destination is zero waste going to landfill. How far have we come?
Five years ago 25% of the waste we handled went to landfill. You could put a positive spin on this and say that 75% of what people disposed of was recycled or repurposed. But that wasn’t enough.
So we set about detailed logging of the types of waste we were handling – particularly the 25% that was still going to landfill. We also explored the best landfill alternatives so that we could gradually reroute waste to the most environmentally-friendly option.
Whether you hire a skip or use our convenient weighbridge service to ‘drop and go’ the work really begins once the waste is at our handling station. We sort and assess the waste into what can be recycled or repurposed.
Recycling and Repurposing
We currently recycle or repurpose wood, soil, plastic, metal and cardboard (if it’s dry and clean).
PVC window units (plastic and glass) are recycled into new PVC windows, contributing to the circular economy.
Plasterboard needs special handling, which is why you always need to tell us in advance if you want to dispose of it. It’s then reprocessed and made into new plasterboard, which is important because if it goes into landfill, it decomposes and emits potentially harmful chemicals.
Refuse Derived Fuel
Some of the residual waste that cannot be recycled or repurposed is processed into Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF). Typically this includes non-recyclable plastics, damp or contaminated cardboard and paper.
These waste products are shredded and turned into pellets, bricks or logs. RDF is incinerated to fuel combined heat and power systems or to displace fossil fuels in applications such as cement kilns. RDF has a lower overall carbon cost than fossil fuels and is a better alternative to landfill.
And when we’ve done all of that we’re left with less than 1% of the residual waste that currently still has to go to landfill. And we’re working on eliminating that too.
So, if you have significant quantities of waste to get rid of and want to be certain it’ll be handled in an environmentally friendly way, give Wellington Waste a call on 01823 664628.
