Cllr Michael Hoy (Greens) has been asking some probing questions of the Council officers over where our rubbish ends up. He’s published the shocking revelations on his blog here.
Cllr Michael Hoy has asked the council about what happens to all the careful recycling that residents carry out by separating their waste. This was the reply he received
“In the Rochford District we collect plastics co-mingled with other recyclable materials and this material is taken to a Viridor Material Recycling Facility (MRF) in Crayford, Kent where it is separated by material type and baled for onward processing.
Some grades of Plastics are then sent by type, to another Viridor MRF in Rochester which specialises in plastics, where it is sorted further to ensure it is of a sufficiently high quality. Plastics are also sent to other locations, mostly in the UK for recycling – the major destination is Viridor Polymer Recycling in Lancashire. A small proportion of the plastics are also exported overseas to countries including Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Vietnam, Turkey & Malaysia. Every quarter a report is sent to me containing a breakdown of where all the materials, including plastics ends up i.e. it’s final destination. I report this information to Defra.”
So not only does some our plastics go overseas, but it is not quantified. Does this mean the Council doesn’t actually know?
Hopefully we will soon find out as Cllr Michael Hoy has asked for this to be looked at by the review committee. Thumbs up from us at onlineFOCUS to tackle this very serious issue!