Christmas recycling wrapped up
Thousands of tonnes of recycling has been sorted and sent off of for processing by Plymouth City Council staff.
While many people in Plymouth were relaxing over Christmas, Council teams were gearing up for one of their busiest periods.
Crews who normally collect 268 tonnes a day of normal rubbish were handling an average 330 tonnes in the first post-Christmas rounds and the recycling rounds also increased markedly – from an average of 58 tonnes a day to well over 75 tonnes – peaking at 88 tonnes on 9 January. Crews on the post-Christmas rounds picked up a whopping 3,312 tonnes of household waste and 871 tonnes of recycling.
Between 27 December and 10 January our Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) at Chelson Meadow sorted and sent for reprocessing over 993 tonnes of recyclables including:
316 tonnes of mixed grade papers and cardboard
171 tonnes of cardboard
103 tonnes of mixed plastic containers
73 tonnes of newspapers and magazines
20 tonnes of cans
There are still more loads to be collected from the MRF.
On Monday 30 December 139 bales of mixed grade paper and card were produced in a single day – that's almost one 450kg bale every three minutes.
Santa also put a lot of electrical appliances in some big stockings as the post-Christmas period brought a flurry of fridges and freezers and other big electrical items to our household recycling centres including:
17 tonnes of TV sets – about 850 sets
16 tonnes of large domestic appliances – about 400 items
10 tonnes of small domestic appliances – 1,000 items
Eight tonnes of fridges and freezers - 200 items
Despite some really bad weather, the household waste recycling centres at Chelson Meadow and Weston Mill were busy receiving over 17,000 visits after Boxing Day. Saturday 4 January was the busiest for both, with Chelson taking 1,222 visits and Weston Mill 669. At one point, Chelson received 199 visitors in an hour.
Councillor Brian Vincent, Cabinet member for the Environment said: "I'd like to thank all those people who have helped us – and the planet - through the year by diligently recycling.
"It's good to remind people of the sheer scale of the waste we create and a reminder that it all has to be sorted and sent somewhere – and the more we recycle, the less will be sent to landfill. I'd also like to thank the staff for their work in all winds and weather."
The bring bank service carried out 137 collections (109 on bottle banks) collecting 201 tonnes of bottled glass, 27 tonnes of newspapers and magazines and 4 tonnes of cans and plastic bottles.
