ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT IN EDINBURGH

We asked people in Edinburgh about their recycling habits and we have concluded that they recycle more or less the same things we do, except that they use a compost bin much more than we do because they live in houses with a garden and we live in flats.

Do you recycle any of these things?

EDINBURGH	SI	NO
Clothes	18	2
food/drink cans	15	5
newspapers/magazines	20	-
plastic bottles	18	2
Glass	17	3
cardboard	17	3
Do you use a compost bin?	8	12

BARCELONA	SI	NO
Clothes	18	2
food/drink cans	17	3
newspapers/magazines	18	2
plastic bottles	20	-
Glass	18	2
cardboard	19	1
Do you use a compost bin?	2	18

 
We studied visiting the "Seafield Community Recycling Centre" and  also the "Community Recycling Centre whose moto is "Make our city Edenburgh", how people in Edinburgh recycle things and we compared them with the way we do it in Barcelona:

  BE WISE TO WASTE

Waste, and the management of it, has become an increasingly important issue in recent years. The use of materials has accelerated and both the production of goods and their consumption has generated more and more waste.

KITCHEN WASTE 36%

OTHER: NAPPIES, FORNITURE,WOOD, AND RUBBIE 22%

PAPER AND CARDBOARD 17%

PLASTICS 14%

GLASS 4%

CANS AND OTHER METALS 4%

TEXTILES AND FOOTWEAR 3%

What type of waste is in the average bin, in Edinburgh? and in Barcelona?

1) In Edinburgh a fleet of 40 refuse collection trucks collect rubbish from households across the city.
2) The trucks compact and take the waste to Powderhall Waste Transfer Station, where it is weighed and loaded onto a train for the Dunbar Landfill Site.
3) The train carries up to 39 containers, about 500 tons of waste in total. This is around two-thirds of the waste generated in the city every day.
4) At the landfill site, your waste is removed from the train and transported to an open “cell”, where it is deposited.
5) There are 22 “cells” in the site and each can hold as much as 75, 000 tons of waste. When the “cell” is full it is enclosed in the thick plastic sheeting, buried and carefully monitored.
6) Eventually, grass will be planted above the “cells” and the land will be reclaimed for farm animals.

But aside from the environmental reasons, that are very important, there are three practical reasons for reducing our reliance on landfill: space,   cost and the law.

- Space: it is getting increasingly harder to find new spaces for landfill sites. The shortage landfill space could become a national problem in only a few years.

- Cost: the producer of any waste that is sent to landfill has to pay a tax to the Treasury in London. This is currently 35 pounds a ton.

- The law: The EU Landfill Directive was introduced in 2002 and requires that member states reduced the pollution caused by the landfilling of waste.

So, the government has found a solution. Instate of taking the waste to the landfills people take it to the recycling center.
      
                                                                         Barbara i Naiara
 

Waste strategy in Edinburgh to reduce waste
 

A vision for Edinburgh:

They are working to minimize the proportion of the city’s waste sent to landfill, improve parks, gardens and open space. They created the campaign “Make our city Edenburgh’’. This campaign will be used to promote pro-environmental behavior, including recycling and waste reduction initiatives. It will also challenge negative environmental behavior by showing the consequences of illegal dumping, not recycling and littering.

Edinburgh’s recycling targets:

The Scottish Government has set recycling and composting targets for Scotland. The key national objective for Council is to minimize the use of landfill.

2000à 5% of waste was diverted from landfill.                                     

2025à That 5% should go to landfill.

In addition the Council has an internal target of recycling 75% of waste by 2025.

What we are doing in Edinburgh:

With the help of Edinburgh residents and the Edenburgh campaign the following initiatives should see the recycling and composting rate rise to meet the targets.

Reduceà Support of composting schemes. Promotion of national waste reduction initiatives. Stop the drop, to reduce unwanted mail. Love food Hate waste campaigns to reduce food waste.  Say no to unwanted bags to help reduce excess waste.
 

  Reuseà Reuse cabins at Communiti Recycling centres. Book banks at Community Recycling Centres.

Support of Edinburgh and Lothians Real nappy projects.

 

Recycleà  Kerbside collections of materials to pproximately 55,000 households. Kerbside garden waste collections to approximately 120,000 households: 

Community recycling centres.

Recycling Point

Recycling of bulky items.

 Recoverà They need to find new ways of dealing with waste that has not been separated or cannot be easily reduced, reused, recycled or composted. This will help create a zero waste future for us all.

The waste hierarchy doesn’t end after reduce, reuse and recycle. There is a fourth element, recovery. While every effort will be made to maximize the first three, there will always be an element of waste that requires treatment. This is called “residual waste".
Where materials cannot be reused or recycled to make another product, the next best option is either to compost the mixed waste, or to recover energy from it. This can be done by a number of mechanical, biological and thermal treatments. Mixed waste compost for which a use cannot be found and small amount of items leftover from waste processing will still have to be sent to landfill.
                                                                                  
Recovery reduces the amount of waste sent to landfill and can also allow useful energy in the farm of electricity and for heat and in some cases, biogas to be produced.

Examples of waste treatment technologies:

Anaerobic Digestion: Anaerobic digestion is a biological process, similar to composting, that uses micro-organisms to treat kitchen and garden wastes and other organic materials.

 

Mechanical biological treatment: This is a method of treating waste using a combination of mechanical process such as composting and digestions.

Thermal Treatment: Incineration is as well established method of treating minucipal and industrial wastes in order to recover useful energy in the form of electrical power or steam/ hot water, for heating and industrial uses.

 

 

The Zero Waste Project:

Zero waste will reduce the amount of waste that is sent to landfill from Edinburgh and Midlothian through the delivery of modern waste treatment facilities that increase recycling and recover value from the waste collected.
It is a joint project between the City of Edinburgh and Midlothian Councils and was set up in response to the Scottish Government’s to make Scotland a zero waste society.

What does zero waste mean?

Zero waste recognizes that waste is a resource that can be recycled and reused, and minimizes the amount of waste that is sent to landfill.

-Using resources efficiently.
-Reduced use of raw materials.
-Sustainable design products made from renewable materials.
-Avoiding or reducing waste.
-Reusing products and materials.
-Recycling or composting waste materials.
-Recovering energy from waste.

Why is zero waste being introduced?

At the moment, they send 2/3 of our household waste to landfill. This is not a sustainable disposal method. It is becoming an increasingly costly option which can cause pollution, contributes to climate change and importantly wastes valuable resources. We need to find of waste we created, as well as reusing, recycling, composting and recovering energy from as much of our waste as possible.

What will the Zero waste project achieve?

By procuring long term contracts with the private sector, the project will:

-Provide treatment facilities for food and residual waste collected for both Councils. 

- Increase recycling. 

-Recover value from waste.  

-Meet landfill diversion and recycling obligations for both Councils.  

-Help to achieve the Scottish Governments ambition to make Scotland a zero waste society.

For more informationà www.zerowastefuture.com

Scotland’s Zero waste Plan:

Achieving zero waste will depend on all sector of the community making a change we all have a part to play:

Homes and schools: Need to think about what they buy, what they use and what the throw away.

Public Sector: Needs to lead by example by treating waste as resource; using and buying more sustainable products and helping employs reuse and recycle at work.    

Businesses: Need to think about what waste they created.  

Scottish Government: Will provide funding, set targets and provide the leadership needed to more toward zero waste.

For more informationà www.zerowastescotland.com      
                                                                          Paula I Alexia

Why do we need to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle?

·         Currently in Scotland, 60% of all municipal waste is sent to landfill sites, 2,7% is incinerated and 36,7% is recycled (SEPA, 2009/10). Dealing with our waste in this way is not sustainable, is a waste of resources and is causing environmental problems.

 

• In Barcelona, only the 32% of the 1,64kg that they produce every day is recycled. 

 

• Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Three great ways you can eliminate waste and protect your environment. 

 

• Waste, and how we choose to handle it, affects our world’s environment, your environment. The environment is everything around you including the air, water, land, plants, and man-made things. And since by now you probably know that you need a healthy environment for your own health and happiness, you can understand why effective waste management is so important to you and everyone else. The waste we create has to be carefully controlled to be sure that it does not harm your environment and your health.

What exactly is waste?

Waste is anything we throw away or get rid of, that
doesn’t  get used.

How can you help?
You can help by learning about and practicing the three R’s of waste management: Reduce, reuse, and recycle. Practicing all three of these activities every day is not only important for a healthy environment, but it can also be fun too. So let’s take a minute right now to learn more about waste and waste management, so you can become a key player in making our world a safe and healthy place.

You can recycle following the next picture

Laura

 

Reduce

The best way to manage waste is not to produce it at all and that is why reduce is at the top of waste hierarchy. 

Expensive programmes have been implemented, particularly in business, to encourage waste prevention. They’re looking at ways to:

·         Prevent and reduce the waste generated through work processes.

·         Use materials, packaging and utilities more efficiently. For example, light weight packaging for food and drinks cans.

·         Extend the lifespan and durability of products so that they do not need to be replaced as often.

Did you know?

 

450 million disposable bags are produced every year in the UK and most take up to 1000 years to decompose, clogging drains, polluting oceans and ending up in landfill sites.

 

Make zero waste lunches

Cutting back on lunchtime waste is really easy and cost effective:

·         Avoid putting your lunch in a plastic bag. Use a reusable airtight container instead.

·         Buy a reusable drinks bottle. Avoid buying individual drinks and bottled water. 

·         Avoid using aluminium foil, and use instead a special wrapper. 

·         Fruit and vegetables are really good for you. Place leftovers in a compost bin. In Barcelona there’s not any of this, but it is a good idea.

·         Feed leftovers bread to birds.

·         Finish your food. The best way to reduce food waste is to prepare the right amount of food and eat it all.  

Repair damaged goods

There is a tendency for people to throw out goods as they break or become damaged. This is inevitable in many cases, but simpler electrical items, furniture and toys can often be repaired or refurbished:

Make sure you have tried fixing white goods, such as washing machines and fridges, before buying new things.

  Stop the drop and reject unwanted mail

Unwanted mail is the second biggest source of wasteful paper, after axes packaging. Help protect global forests and reduce waste by cutting down on unwanted mail being sent to your home.

Find out more about how to reduce unwanted mail by visiting:

www.stop-the-drop.org.uk

Best practice in the workplace

Tens of thousands of tonnes of waste are produced every year by businesses in Edinburgh. There are simple ways to reduce waste generated at work:

·         Use double-sided printers and photocopiers.

·         Get a staple-free stapler or reuse paper clips instead of using a stapler.

·         Avoid using post-it notes or message pads- reuse scrap paper instead. 

Use your purchasing power

Go into any supermarket or corner store and look around, and the first thing you’ll see isn’t food: you’re looking at cardboard, glass, metal, plastic- in fact, aisle after aisle of packaging.

Packaging typically accounts for a quarter of all household waste and is mainly glass, cardboard, metal and plastic.

·         If you’re buying chocolates buy the ones with the least packaging.

·         Don’t buy individually wrapped cereals or cakes.

·         Buy products that you can compost at home.

Buy services rather than goods

Try giving experience presents rather than items that would eventually become waste:

·         Tickets to the theatre, cinema, a day out etc.

·         Buying pampering presents like massages and beauty treatments.

·         Day trips or weekends away 

Use rechargeable batteries

Over 2000 tonnes of domestic batteries are thrown away every year in the UK.

Some electrical appliances can be operated using either mains power or batteries. Batteries are around 40 times more expensive than mains. If batteries are essential, think about using rechargeable batteries. Rechargeable batteries may cost more initially but will save you money in the long term and will reduce waste going to landfill.

Solar power radios and torches, which use the sun’s energy to power the appliance, are also available. The appliances are expensive to start with, but may be worth thinking about if you are using a lot of batteries. You can now recycle your batteries at most supermarkets, shops and Community Recycling Centres.

Take part in home composting

Making home compost can reduce the amount of household waste by up to 30% per year for a typical household. It is an easy, cheap and practical way to manage your waste and take care of your garden.

 Say no to disposable shopping bags

We use about eight billion disposable carrier bags every year in the UK and most of these will end up in landfill.

Reduce the number of shop carrier bags thrown away by using your own bags rather than relying on single use carry out bags. Some supermarkets are encouraging this by supplying sturdy re-usable plastic bags at 10p per bag which are replaced free of charge when they eventually wear out. Other supermarkets sell plastic crates to go inside the trolley eliminating the need for bags completely.
                                                 Maria 

REUSE        

     

Reuse is one of the three R’s. Instead of thowing things away, you give it another life. 

•  You can Reuse books by passing them round.
• You can reuse Bottles and jars by keeping them for storing items,  putting food in, bottle plant pots or you can make recycled lamps. Bottles and jars are a very good example of reuse because they don´t lose their qualities.
• You can reuse Household decorations.
• You can reuse Rechargeable batteries
• You can reuse Plastic bags and pots
• ·You can reuse Textiles

In Barcelona we have different organizations  that get these clothes to make be used again.

CONCLUSION: We are about 3500km away and we are as conscientious for the 3R’s as they are.

                                                                                                                     Guillem

Recycle

Kerbside collections: In Edinburgh many household is currently part of a kerbside collections recycling scheme, there are two different colours for the bins red and blue that is collected every fifteen days alternatively. In Barcelona it is the same but changing the small bins for trashes anddifferent colours.

 

Garden waste collections: In Edinburgh there are many houses with garden and have a special brown bin to throw the garden waste, this bin goes to the landfill. In Barcelona  very few houses have garden so we don't have a special bin.

Recycling points: In Edinburgh there are 240 recycling points, you can throw different types of waste like paper, cardboard, cans, glass, packaging and plastic bottles. Most are in areas with a supermarket or a schools. In Barcelona we have the “Punt Verd”, that is the same and “Punt Verd Mòvil” for  schools only.

Plastic bottles: are made from non-renewable fossil fuels. It is estimated that 4% of the world annual oil production is used to make plastics.

Glass bottles and jars: Glass bottles and jars are made from limestone, soda ash and sand. Each tone of gass recycled replaces 1.2 tonnes of these raw materials.
 

Aluminium cans: Are made using bauxite. That material is found under the forest, recycling this you can save a forest and saves up to 95% energy needed to make aluminium.

Televisions: contain 6% metal and 50% glass. You can recycle them into new products

                                                                                       Carles

Garden Waste Kerbsite Collection

Edinburgh is a medium size city where most of the people and the families live in the surroundings. Barcelona, instead is bigger and people live in flats. For this reason, in Edinburgh  is probably easier to make compost off the rests of the garden and the kitchen, while in Barcelona it is hardier, but we have our own system too.

Let’s see:

EDINBURGH:

Around 120.000 Edinburgh homes have a brown bin to recycle garden waste all year round, for making compost from these organic materials.

This is the all process in which is made the compost:

1.    Collection of garden waste. Garden waste is collected from 120.000 households around the city.

2.    Delivery to composting facility. This waste is transported by a company to the Fourth Resource Management composting facility that operates several composting sites over Southern Scotland processing over 60,000 tonnes of green waste per year.

3.    Removing contaminants. Before starting the composting process, the possibly contaminants (plastics, papers…)  are removed by hand, so please make sure that only appropriate items are thrown to your brown bin.

4.    Shredding the material. Then, an excavator vehicle places the waste into a shredding machine that shred (cut the material into small pieces) as much as 45 tonnes of garden waste every hour.

5.    Windrows The shredded material is built into windrows. Windrows are big amounts of waste that are drying by the wind with the purpose of producing large volumes of compost.  

6.    Sterilising the compost. The garden waste is transformed into compost through the work of micro-organisms, soil fauna, enzymes and fungi in a process called “aerobic digestion” Heat indicates that the micro-organisms are transforming the organic matter into finished compost, so the windrows are left until the internal temperature increases rapidly. This process is controlled to be sure that plants, human and animal pathogens (disease producing micro-organisms) are destroyed. This is the sterilisation stage of the process. 

7.    Turning the windrows. To do their work, micro-organisms need a lot of oxygen, so the excavator vehicle is used to turn the windrows, which means it mixes the material up so that more air can get between the layers. 

8.    Stabilising the compost. When the microbial activity comes to an end, and the temperature stabilises, the compost is then stable.  

9.    Screening the compost. After stabilisation, the compost is screened to grade into appropriately sized fractions and remove large pieces.   

 

10. Testing the compost. Then the compost is sent to specialised laboratories to be tested to make sure it meets the highest possible standards. 

11. Packaging. The finished compost is bagged into 20 kilogram bags. 

12. Selling the compost. When this compost is packed is ready to be sold or to be used in public gardens or parks in Edinburgh.  

 

BARCELONA:

A composting plant is a facility dedicated to treat organic matter and plant residues to obtain compost, an organic fertilizer that can be used both in agriculture and gardening.

In Barcelona, organic matter comes from selective collection, collected by citizens in their homes, or by organizations (markets, restaurants, shops, etc.).

Green waste comes from gardening and usually is generated by the municipal services.

 Composting plants:

The Barcelona metropolitan area has three composting plants:

-          Sant Cugat composting plant.

-          Torrelles de Llobregat composting plant.

-          Castelldefels composting plant.

The composting process starts by extracting the possibly materials, like plastics, papers… that are sent to their own recycling bins. Then the waste is shred and let it decomposed like in nature, but in an accelerate way. After all the process, the compost is ready to be used.

Start composting:

Making home compost can reduce the amount of household waste by up to 30% per year for a typical household, so… let’s start to compose!

What goes in your brown bin?

In your brown bin you can throw both green and brown materials.
 

Green materials include:

·         Grass cuttings

·         Fruits and vegetables

·         Flowers and plants

·         Egg shells

·         Tea leaves/ bags and coffee grounds
 

Brown materials include:

·         Leaves

·         Scrunched up cardboard and paper

·         Feathers

·         Straw

CONCLUSION       After all, the system of decomposing the organic matter and the vegetal waste is almost the same in both Barcelona and Edinburgh.     Basically, the difference stands in the way to obtain these materials.     But, independently if you live in one place or another, the important thing is that you always try to do a better  and greener world.                                                                                                                    Patricia

 

 Multi-Material Kerbside Collection

 

Around 155,000 Edinburgh homes receive a kerbside collection service to recycle a range of materials through a fortnightly collection of two alternating boxes – a red box and a box.

1.Your blue and red box.

 

Red box: · Cardboard · Cereal boxes · Drinks cartons · Greeting cards and postcards	Blue box: ·Glass bottles and  jars ·Steel cans and tins ·Aluminium cans ·Empty aerosols ·Clean aluminium foil	Don’t forget to  wash and squash  your material.
	Textile bag: ·Clothing ·Sheets ·Shoes ( in pairs) ·Towels	You should put the textile bag with the blue box for collection.
	Blue bag: ·Catalogues ·Computer paper ·All directories ·Magazines ·Newspaper ·Unwantedmail	You should put the blue bag with the blue box  for collection.
	Clear bag: ·Household batteries	You should put  the clear bagwith the blue box for collection.
	All types of clean,  plàstic bottles.	You should put the opaque bag with the blue box for collection.

2.Boxes are placced at the kerbside (the paviment) for collection.

You put your red and blue boxes at the kerbside for collection on an alternative fortnightly basis.

3.Kerbside boxes are collected by a recycling company.

Kerbside collection vehicles work full-time to collect kerbside boxes from over 155,000 households in Edimburgh.

4. Sorting materials.

Recycling staff sort the materials at the kerbside and place them into the relevant compartments of the recycling vehicle.

5. Weighing

Your recyclable waste is transported to a Recycling Transfer Station where the truck is weighed on a weighbridge with all the cages full of different materials, then weighed again with each cage subsequently removed.

                                                                                          Andrea

Packaging Recycling Points

There are over 1000 Packaging Recycling Points in the city. The majority of the cardboard and recycled papers through the Edimburgh kerbside collections and Packaging Points is recycled into new paper.

What goes in the Packaging Point ?

1-    Cardboard and envelopes

2-    Plastic bottles

3-    Food and drinks cans

4-    Empty aerosol cans

5-    Cardboard drinks cartons

6-    Envelopes

Packaging Points are blacks bins with a green lid

Where does it go?

1-    Collection from Recycling Point: In Edimburgh over 1000 Packaging Recycling Points are collected and emptied into recycling vehicles. 

2-    Recycling Facility: The trucks take your packaging waste to a recycling facility. 

3-    Unloading the trucks: The trucks are emptied and all the combined waste materials are loaded into a bay. 

4-    Separation of waste materials: The waste is loaded, by mechanical shovel, into a cylindrical rotating drum called a Trommel. 

5-    Positive packing: The low-level conveyor belt carries the smaller materials up to a positive picking line platform. 

6-    Negative picking line: The high-level conveyor belt carries larger items up to a negative pickingline platform. 

7-    Baling separated materials: Separated items are baled by material type by a baling machine and and made ready for the next part of their journey. 

8-    Tansferring materials to the material reprocessor: Each materialis loaded on to trucks and taken to a recycling  facility where it is recycled.
                                                                                      Raúl

Paper and cardboard Recycling

Information:
Paper and cardboard are collected in red and blue kerbside bins. Cardboard is recycled separately from the paper, but the process is very similar. The most paper and cardboard in Edinburgh is recycled into new paper.

      Process:

1. Bulk cardboard is delivered to a Recycling Facility to begin the recycling process.

2. The cardboard is sent to a pulper, where warm water causes the cardboard to break apart into small fibres. Then, they clean those fibres.

3. The fibres are dried to make sludge. They collect that sludge with other ones.

4. A machine called a “calendar stack” uses big tubes to iron out the cardboard fibres before it is wound into large rolls.

5. The “jumbo” sized rolls of recycled paper are taken off the machine to begin the process of cutting and wrapping.

6. Computer controlled machines to cut the paper to size, according to the requirements of the companies for whom it is manufactured.

7. Then the paper is packed in reels, ready for shipment.

8. Not quite the end, this machine applies the ends to the wrapped reels to protect the paper in transit.

9. Fresh paper is stacked in the finished goods warehouse to await delivery to the printers, where it is ready to be used in the production of the paper products.

10. When you use the paper, you do it again.

But this has bad things, for example:

1. It takes more energy to make recycled paper than new paper.

2. Recycled papers are poor quality.

3. Colored paper contaminates the paper recycling process.


Visit to Wastework:

We went to a recycling point where a man told us that he goes to schools to show the children how to recycle doing workshops.

                                                                                           Eloy

Glass Recycling

By recycling your glass containers you are helping us to divert over 4000 tonnes of glass every year from landfill in Edinburgh.

Did you know?

· Most homes in the UK use approximately 331 bottles every year.

· The energy needed to melt recycled glass is 30% less than that needed to melt raw materials

· glass is 100% recyclable, without any loss in quality, no matter how many times it is recycled. After re-melting and forming, glass bottles and jars are as pure and clean as those made from virgin raw materials

The process of glass recycling

1. Collection from recycling point

2. Separation

3. Transfer to glass treatment centre

4. Crushing

5. Removal of contaminating pieces

6. Screening

7. Delivery to recycling facil

8. Melting glass

9. Remoulding

10. Annealing

11. Quality control

12. Retail

The differences of Scotland and Spain

In Scotland people recycle the glass bottles in four containers: Blue glass, brown glass, clear glass and green glass.

  But in Spain we recycle all glass in one container: the Green container and this makes it more difficult.                                    

                                                                                      Eloi M.

  Aluminium Recycling in Edinburgh

Process:

1.  Cans are first divided from municipal waste, usually through an eddy current separator, and cut into little, equal pieces to lessen the volume and make it easier for the machines that separate them.

2.  Pieces are cleaned chemically/mechanically, and blocked to minimize oxidation losses when melted. (The surface of aluminium readily oxidizes back into aluminium oxide when exposed to oxygen).

3.  Blocks are loaded into the furnace and heated to 750 °C ± 100 °C to produce molten aluminium.

4.  Dross is removed and the dissolved hydrogen is degassed. (Molten aluminium readily disassociates hydrogen from water vapor and hydrocarbon contaminants.) This is typically done with chlorine and nitrogen gas. Hexachloroethane tablets are normally used as the source for chlorine. Ammonium perchlorate can also be used, as it decomposes mainly into chlorine, nitrogen, and oxygen when heated.

5.  Samples are taken for spectroscopic analysis. Depending on the final product desired, high purity aluminium, copper, zinc, manganese, silicon, and/or magnesium is added to alter the molten composition to the proper alloy specification. The top 5 aluminium alloys produced are apparently 6061, 7075, 1100, 6063, and 2024.

6.  The furnace is tapped, the molten aluminium poured out, and the process is repeated again for the next batch. Depending on the end product it may be cast into ingots, billets, or rods, formed into large slabs for rolling, atomized into powder, sent to an extruder, or transported in its molten state to manufacturing facilities for further processing.      

 

                                          

                                                                               David F. 

PLATIC  BOTTLES  RECYCLING 

Plastics production requires significant quantities of natural resources, primarily fossil fuels, and the 4 % of the world’s annual oil is used for plastic production.

And it takes only 25 two litre plastic bottle to make an adult fleece jacket.

And when you are going to throw a thing in a bin, you have to minimize its volume. By reducing its volume, the truck that transports the materials can transport a lot of more and uses less fuel.

Now I am going to explain the process to recycle a plastic bottle in Edinburgh:

One tonne of plastic is equivalent to 20000 two-litre drinks bottles.

Most plastics are non-degradable, which means they could take hundreads or thousands of years to break down.

1: Collection. You have to wash the bottles and  put them in the red kerbside recycling boxes.

2: Selective collection and shorting at recycling facility: These bottles go to a recycling facility centre, and in this centre they separate the plastic bottles.

3: Delivery to recycling centre. From the recycling facility baled plastic bottles are delivered to a plastics recycling centre.

4: Sorting: At this centre the plastic bottles are de-baled using a high-tech engineering machine. A infra-red technology separes the bottles in types of plastics.

5. Crushing and cleaning. The bottles then pass into integrated washplants where granulators chop the bottles into plastic flakes(PET) or granules(HDPE), then a density separation techniques wash the flakez or the granules. The flakes or the granules are ready for a further processing.

6: Processing: Flakes and granules are then melted and processed with various techniques and reused for manufacturing products. 

   There are about fifty different types of plastic, with hundreds of different

varieties: PET,PVC,HDPE,PP,PS.                                                            

                                                                                       David D.

Charity donations Recycling points

 

In Edinburgh there are many Charity Recycling Points for the textiles, shoes and books.

There are 89 Charity Recycling points for all type of textiles and shoes.
 

There are also 12 Charity Recycling Points to donate this type of things :

• Books
• CDs
• DVDs                  
• Videos

• Process of the Recycling Points

1.     Collection from charity textiles and shoe recycling points.

To collect the textiles, the charity uses a lot of trucks to empty the 89 recycling points.

2.     Delivery to textiles recycling facility

When the trucks arrive, each bag of clothes is loaded onto a short conveyor that deposits the bag into the incoming collection bay.

3.     Sorting

The conveyor passes around the factory floor. There, the workers separate the clothes into categories, and they place the damaged items into a separate container.

The shoes are separated according to quality and type. It’s very important that the shoes are given in pairs.

4.     Transferring sorted items to the baler

When the items are separated they are transferred to the baling machine

5.     Baling process

Items are removed from containers in batches. Each batch is loaded onto a baling machine that compresses and packing it.

There are different types of batches according to weight and quality.

6.     Shipping of clothes to export country

Bales are then transported to the ports of Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. There the charity distributes the clothes for the poor people.

If your donation is put in a Recycling Point managed by a charity:

1.     Collection from charity donations Recycling Points

Individual charities deliever the contents to their shops or Sorting centre

2.     Sorting by volunteers

Donations are separated into categories according to quality and type.

3.     Goods are put on the shop floor for a set time period

If the clothes aren’t sell may be moved to another shop or sold to a rag merchant.

Textil points in Barcelona

The Cooperative "Roba Amiga" tries to locate the maximum number of containers. Today there are more than 1500 containers around Catalonia.

"Roba Amiga" container is easily recognizable thanks to its orange colour.

The design of the orange container has been designed to feature a good following and Ecodesign criteria.

Instructions

You must deposit the clothes in the orange containers.

It collects used clothing as long as it meets the minimum requirements for cleanliness and good condition. Also they collect shoes, handbags and other accessories.

The clothes collection has different destinations depending on their needs.

Humana

There are shop named "Humana" that sell clothes from their green containers.

If they can’t sell something, they send the clothes to a recycle center that recycles the clothes.

The money that they get is given to poor people around the world.         

                                                                          Joel   

Electrical and Electrononics Recycling

Many electronic and electrical items contain harmful and hazardous materials, which must be safely removed and treated prior to disposal in order to protect our environment and reduce risks to human Health.

By recycling your electrical and electronic goods you are helping us to divert over 1,000 tonnes of electrical and electronic goods every year from landfill.

Every year an estimated 2 million television sets are discarded. An average television contains 6% metal and 50% glass. 96% of every television can be reused or recycled into new products, such as televisions.

Recycling these items saves natural resources required to produce new products from virgin materials and reduces harmful waste going to landfill.

Waste journey:

• Community recycling centre: You can recycle electrical and electronic goods at the community recycling centre. They accept: Electrical items (anything with battery) and Large white goods ego veins, washing Machines, fridges and microwaves.
• Collection from community recycling centre: A vehicle transports the electrical and electronic goods to a recycling plant.
• Segregation by type: In the plants, the electronic and electric goods are separated in: Type 1: Refrigeration such as fridges and fridge-freezers, which contain harmful ozone depleting substances in their coolant Systems. Type 2: TV and computers monitors and other goods, which contain harmful cathode ray tubes. Type 3: all other electrical and electronic goods that contain batteries or capacitors.
• Recycling: the different materials are then recycled into new items,
• Distribution to manufacturers: each material is made ready for transportation.

                                                                                                    JORDI M.   

Rubble and Brick Recycling:

The recycling action is reintroduced into the production cycle of the product with other materials and consumer products obtained from waste materials.

S·Approximately 11.8 million tonnes of construction and excavation waste is produced in Scotland every year.

B- In Spain there is only one plant treated waste and recycling of construction debris.

S·About 32 million tonnes of aggregate is used in Scotland each year.

B-Materials for the manufacture of byproducts other than metals, plastics and glass, as well as recycled can be allocated to this purpose, are mainly stone materials, ceramic (brick), concrete and bituminous pavements which can engage the production of secondary products.

S·Recycled aggregate is used for road construction, in concrete for structures or for landscaping purposes.

B-At present, the percentage of waste recycled or recovered by transfer to construction for use in road bases, excluding sale or similar landfill, is estimated at 42.97% of the total waste generated.

Process-Barcelona:

It is proceed  manual when the trucks empty the load of rubble and debris from construction, using suitable machinery separate plastic, paper and other improper, that of separating hamper the whole process, and would make the resulting material unusable.

Subsequently, the discharge proceeds chain selection, where through various crushers, and following processes, as screened along with other systems, among which features the use of magnets to separate the ferrous metals from the debris, the materials are separated leveraging their densities and other physical parameters.

Once the process is achieved and high quality aggregates of various types, which can be used in new construction.

Process-Scotland:

1-    Collection from Community Recycling Center. Your old bricks, soil stone and slabs are taken to an aggregate plant for reuse.

2-    Sorting the materials : At the aggregate plant, excavators or shovel loads the bricks and rubble into a screening machine to separate out the materials that are over 50 mm.

3-    Crushing:The materials that are over 50mm are crudely crushed into smaller fragments, which are transported by a small conveyor belt to from a pile of fist-sized pieces of rubble.

4-    Screen: The fist-sized material from the crusher is fed into a screening machine and materials are separated out according to their size and quality.

5-    Wash plant:The material at the wash plant is loaded into a screening machine to remove fine particles, with are less than 5mm. The material that is above 5 mm in size passes through the wash plant. Screens at the end of the wash plant split the material into 10mm, 20mm, and 40mm sized pieces. The finer material retained in the water is passed through a sand recovery plant to recover the sand.

6-    Delivery:The different materials are transported to manufactures and used again in road construction.                                                     Agustín

 

Food waste recycling

What goes into food waste bin?

Edinburgh:

You can recycle : Beans, pasta, rice, bread, cakes, cheese, eggs, fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, bones, tea bags, cofee grounds, chips, burgers and pizzas.

You can’t recycle: Food packaging, liquids (milk, oil), garden waste, plastig bags, animal and waste.

Barcelona:

You can recycle: The same, but you can put he garden waste toobecause we haven’t got a special bin for it. But in Edinburgh they do.

You can’t recycle: The same things except garden waste.

 

How to use the food waste service?

Edinburgh:

1-    Line your kitchen caddy with a compostable liner.

2-    Fill your caddy with unwanted food waste.

3-    When your kitchen caddy is full, knot the liner and put he contents into your external food waste bin.

4-    Place the compostable liner in your external bin.

5-    You can also trow your compostable liner into an organic bin:

 

 

Barcelona:

 

In Barcelona everything is different, first we haven’t got a especial caddy, we have a normal bin. Then we haven’t got a compostable linner, we use a simple garbage bag. And finally we haven’t got external food waste bin, we throw the garbage into the organic brown bin.

Recycling methods:

Edinburgh: 

• Anaerobic digestion: is a series of processes in which microorganisms break down biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen. It is used for industrial or domestic purposes to manage waste and/or to release energy. Much of the fermentation used industrially to produce food and drink products, as well as home fermentation, uses anaerobic digestion. Silage is produced by anaerobic
• In-vessel composting: is an industrial form of composting biodegradable waste that occurs in enclosed reactors. These generally consist of metal tanks or concrete bunkers in which air flow and temperature can be controlled, using the principles of a "bioreactor". Generally the air circulation is metered in via buried tubes that allow fresh air to be injected under pressure, with the exhaust being extracted through a biofilter, with temperature and moisture conditions monitored using probes in the mass to allow maintenance of optimum aerobic decomposition conditions.

Barcelona:

    In Barcelona we haven’t got this advanced technology, but  we have in Álava, Mallorca and Guipuzcoa  a machine called  BIOCOMP^TM ,this composter is able to treat over 400kg of organic waste per day and will contribute to increase the sustainability of the airport, lower its waste treatment costs, and improve the local environment by removing almost 150 tons of waste a year from the local landfills and incinerators (an equivalent to 15 fully loaded garbage trucks). At the same time, the compost produced will be used by the airport management for gardening and landscaping, further reducing the airfield’s landscaping expenses.

 

     So I think that if we put one machine for every community, and reduce our food waste, we will reduce the landfills, and we will have a better environment.
Interesting facts  

1. They throw away a third of all the food we buy. The average household bin in Edinburgh contained around 36% food waste.
2. Over 1 billion € worth of food is wasted by consumers in Scotland each year. That’s an average of 430€ per household.       

                                                                                       Víctor

Metal recycling

If you recycle metal, you are helping to divert over 800 tonnes of metal every year from landfill.

Did you know?

Every year, Britain's recycling industry recovers well over 15 million tonnes of metals that would otherwise be sent to landfill. In the UK, steelworks use almost 4.8 million tonnes of recycled metal a year in making about 13-9 million of tonnes of new steel.

1. Collection from Community Recycling Centre

You can recycle all types of metal:

·Scrap Metal

·Metal car parts

·Metal bedframes and headboards

·Metal cabinets

·Damaged cookers and white goods.

A collection vehicle transports the scrap metal to a metal recycling facility, then the metal is sorted into different types: Steel and non-ferrous metals. 

2. Compression in shearer/baler

 A mechanical material handler loads the lower grade materials into a shear/baler.

 

 

3. Shredded in the fragmentiser

Lower grade metal logs are transported to a metal fragmentiser, which weights around 50-70 tonnes.

 

 

 

 

4. Melting

At the steel works, the metal is heated to extremely high temperatures and melted down.

 

 

5.Distributed to manufacturers

The material at the wash plant is loaded into a screening machine to remove fine particles, which are less than 5mm. Screens at the end of the wash plant split the material into 10mm, 20mm and 40mm sized pieces.

 Metal recycling in Spain

ARPAL Data 2009 (Association for Recycling Aluminum Products) performed each year a comprehensive study to reliably meet tons of aluminum cans recovered through traditional retrievers. The data of this study are added aluminum containers recovered through the yellow container, plant selection, and collected additional incinerator slag. The latest data of aluminum packaging recycling 13,412 tons of points to aluminum cans recovered in our country through different pathways: recuperates traditional incineration slag, sorting plants, plants collected RSU and complementary.

·2008 Facts Recycling aluminum packaging waste accounts for 27.7% of total packaging consumed in our country.

For the study, has enjoyed the cooperation of Ecoembes, which has provided data recovery selection aluminum plants, municipal solid waste plants, composting plants and collected additional (reporting directly to recyclers Ecoembes and data from other campaigns).   
                                                                                    Jordi P.