{"id":159,"date":"2024-01-24T09:40:51","date_gmt":"2024-01-24T09:40:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/?p=159"},"modified":"2026-06-23T16:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T16:28:12","slug":"what-happens-to-your-recycling-after-collection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/2024\/01\/24\/what-happens-to-your-recycling-after-collection\/","title":{"rendered":"What happens to your recycling after collection?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"et_pb_section_0 et_pb_section et_section_regular et_block_section\"><div class=\"et_pb_row_0 et_pb_row et_block_row\"><div class=\"et_pb_column_0 et_pb_column et_pb_column_4_4 et-last-child et_block_column et_pb_css_mix_blend_mode_passthrough\"><div class=\"et_pb_text_0 et_pb_text et_pb_bg_layout_light et_pb_module et_block_module\"><div class=\"et_pb_text_inner\"><p>Once your recycling is collected it is taken to a depot. At the depot, your recycling is picked up and taken to a sorting facility.<\/p>\n<p>The recycling is placed on a conveyor belt and goes through a series of machines which separate the different materials. Here\u2019s how:<\/p>\n<p><em>Paper and cardboard:<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In a large spinning drum, similar to a washing machine, paper &amp; card lay flat &amp; pass over specially sized holes whereas glass, plastic and cans fall through the gaps.<\/p>\n<p><em>Metal packaging:<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Metal sorters separate steel cans out using a magnet. An electric current is then used to sort aluminium cans and foil.<\/p>\n<p><em>Glass:<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Shaking and tilted tables with different sized holes separate recyclable materials by weight and size. Glass falls through the first gaps as it\u2019s the heaviest.<\/p>\n<p><em>Cartons:<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Infra-red beams of light identify the cartons by their thickness &amp; separate them from other materials.<\/p>\n<p><em>Plastics:<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Optical sorters use beams of light to show different plastic types and then blasts of air blow the types into separate baskets.<\/p>\n<p>Recycling is an extremely interesting topic that delves into a huge array of processes, keep an eye on our blogs to keep up to date!<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":11502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,17,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-curriculum-practice","category-economic-sustainability","category-environmental-sustainability"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13779,"href":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159\/revisions\/13779"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}