28 August, 2016

Back to school – back to recycling

There are approximately 34,000 schools in the UK and they play a vital role in dealing with waste. Educating children about the importance of recycling and the environment leads the way to a greener future.

Recycling Paper

Even with the progression of technology, paper is still the main form of waste created by schools – making up almost 25% of all its waste.

To reduce the amount of paper waste try the following:

Contact the local council and ask them to provide the school with a paper-recycling bin.
Set up a paper collection scheme for each classroom by making ‘paper only’ boxes for the children and teachers to put used paper in.
Involve pupils by allowing them to create posters and bright labels for the recycle bins.
Educate teachers and staff to ensure they understand the importance of recycling, and this should filter down to the pupils.

Metal Recycling

What to do with your old mattress?

Mattress Disposal in London

So you’ve bought a new bed and along with it came a new mattress but you don’t know what to do with your old one. Many bed and mattress companies remove the old one within the delivery agreement for the new bed or mattress, while some don’t. This leaves you with the dilemma of having to do mattress disposal in London.

Not many people are aware that mattresses are recyclable, and tend to dispose of it in rubbish dumpsters. Mattresses are made from many recyclable materials such as foam, cotton and metal springs.

The recycling process for a mattress is:

Separating types of mattress by material type.
Depending on the type of material, mattresses are then either mechanically shredded or manually stripped using specialist tools.
The by-products and materials extracted from the mattresses, such as polyester, foam, cotton and steel are then bundled and passed on to other recycling outlets or manufacturers to re-start their future as another product.
The fabrics and fibres salvaged from your old mattress could bounce back to you in the guise of cotton and foam could be recycled into pillow stuffing; furniture upholstery; carpet foam or underlay padding.
Other textiles, such as rayon and sisal, might be recycled into new mattresses.
The steel from sprung bedding might be melted down for use into a great many other products.
The wood from box springs is often chipped and recycled as garden mulch, animal bedding or used to produce a biomass fuel.

There are a few ways to dispose a mattress in London :

Plastic Bottle Recycling Process

Recycling has been encouraged to be one of our top priority as we become aware of our surroundings and begin to keep the environment clean. Even though we all need to keep ourselves hydrated with bottles of water through our daily activities, it would be interesting for the public to know and fill themselves with important information to the procedures of bottle recycling.

People at home recycle their bottles and other things, placing them in one bag for rubbish collectors to collect. It allows recycling companies to gather and place it in a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) which is a machine that separates plastic bottles from all other recyclable products such as milk bottles or tins.

After the bottles have been collected altogether, they are compressed and sent to UK re-processors. The bottles are made sure to be dry cleaned and stored together, by their groups of plastics, as there are many types of plastic bottles that are sold and used in the UK. The plastic bottles will then be grinded into small pieces of flakes which will be once again washed and stored. However, the flakes are removed from any unwanted chemical substances by the use of chemical solution or melted down and sieved to create beads, depending on the types of plastics used.

With great success these beads and flakes are melted down again to be recycled into something new such as drain pipes or new plastic bottled products.

Wondering what to do with your old furniture?

If you are thinking to get rid of old furniture that is just laying around the house or your back yard, there are things you can do with it rather than it just gathering dust in your house or occupying space, below are some of the options:

Local charities – Donate your furniture to a local charity shop or non-profit organisation, they are always looking to take unwanted items and sell it off to someone out there who will utilise the item. You can also donate to your local church or any local organisation who will also make good use of the furniture.

Local council – If you live in London, local councils may have a re-use organisation that collect old furniture and donate them to local projects that help the less fortunate.

Family & Friends – You can ask your friends or family who may need furniture temporarily or permanently, this would be the perfect opportunity as you can give them your old furniture to benefit you as well as them or they can sell it off to make extra cash.

Selling the furniture – There are many internet based websites or apps such as eBay or Gumtree which are popular. Trade or exchange the item of furniture so you can have something that you want or like in return so someone out there will be willing to take your item one way or another. You can also sell it at car boot sales if possible.

Repairing/restore – If you don’t want to get rid of the old furniture and still want to keep it, if you have free time then you can restore or repurpose the item of furniture. Depending on what the item is, you can always use it for another purpose, for example an old television can be turned into a fish tank or an old book shelf can be turned into your pet’s new house.

If all the above is not working for you and the furniture cannot be re-used by someone else, then you can simply just recycle the furniture. For all your rubbish collection in London, give us a call or use the form on the right.

Archive: August 2016