South Northants District Council:
"There were reports in the national press last weekend claiming that much recyclable waste collected by councils in the UK was in fact ending up in landfill sites in Asia.
"South Northamptonshire Council wants to emphasise that none of the domestic recyclable waste it collects from its residents ends up in landfill. Everything the council collects for recycling is properly, efficiently and effectively dealt with.
"The council works in partnership with specialist recycler UPM, based in Shotton near Chester.This site is one of the largest paper mills in the UK as well as having very advanced methods of dealing with other materials.
"At UPM, mixed recyclables from the black recycling box are put onto a conveyer belt where steel and aluminium are removed by magnets and electric currents. Air jets then separate cardboard and plastics according to weight and density. The paper from the green boxes goes to the paper mill to be cleaned, pulped and made into newsprint.The steel, aluminium, cardboard and plastics are prepared for further processing. Metals are smelted for reuse and plastics reprocessed and typically used in the manufacture of such things as car bumpers and fleeces. All of these materials have value and are sold. South Northamptonshire Council has negotiated very good deals to ensure we get good prices for the materials that we recycle.
"Added to this your green garden waste is turned into compost. Glass from the green recycling boxes is dealt with separately and after being bulked locally it is taken to Barnsley to be turned into new glass bottles and jars.
"Cllr Dermot Bambridge, portfolio holder for environmental services said "The more we recycle, the less we send to land fill, which is very expensive. So you can rest assured that your efforts are not wasted. When you take the trouble to sort your waste into recyclable and non recyclable items we will ensure that anything that can be recycled will be. In fact the newspaper you read on Monday could be recycled and back on the news stand within a week."
"Cllr Bambridge added: "We're not going to rest on our laurels though.The new recycling measures that we're introducing soon will mean more materials will be collected and recycled, and even less going to landfill. Waste food will be processed to run electric generators with the residual matter used as fertiliser on farmland"."