WEEE ... What happens to your electrical items that go for recycling?

WEEEEE!! ... the sound which the Recycling Guru makes on the slide at Telegraph Hill park when he's let out for playtime, he also found time this week for a different type of WEEE, he had a trip to a WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment)processing plant and discusses his visit here...

Visiting the Specialist Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Processor (SWEEEP) recycling plant in Sittingbourne, Kent was a real opportunity to witness at first hand what actually happens to the electrical and electronic waste that is disposed of at the Reuse and Recycling Centre in Landmann Way, New Cross, Lewisham.

This company has spent a small fortune on the latest technology to ensure that they can process the maximum possible from all the items of electrical waste that pass through their plant. They claim to be able to recycle up to 97% of all of the products which they receive including: TV's, washing machines, photocopiers through to hairs dryers, microwave ovens and food mixers. WEEE covers just about all electric appliances that can be found in the home, everything from electronic games, DVD players, CD players, calculators, toasters, kettles, fridges, washing machines, audio systems, televisions, IT equipment through to commercial and industrial equipment.


On arrival at the site, outside the large buildings where the processing takes place, are mountains of TV's waiting to be dismantled.

Inside, a small team of people strip the TV's down in what seem like seconds.

The plastic casings go down small chutes to join many others, while the cathode ray tube (CRT) goes onto a conveyor belt to be broken up further and separated into its different types of glass before the lead is extracted from the glass which all goes back into other industries for reusing. Some of the glass for example goes into the shot blasting industry.

A different process takes place for items like washing machines and photocopiers. These are placed inside a machine that just seems to pulverise them into onto a mass of broken bits that drop out of the bottom of the machine. From here, the separated parts move along other conveyor belts to ensure that all useful and recyclable parts are separated. One of the final processes is the hand sorting. This involves a team of people picking off the valuable parts from the moving conveyors belts. In this room you witness the effort that goes into ensuring that everything that can be recycled, is recycled.



Once broken down the components are sent to various industries to be reprocessed or reused directly and have many applications, the picture to the left is of the computer casing baled and ready to be reprocessed.

SWEEEP's website also provides a very useful short film about how the plant works and the processes involved, please see the following link here

Sucking Waste!

I had a really interesting visit to the new Wembley Stadium today … was it to see an England football match, a game of NFL or a slightly ageing group of rockstars? It was none of these - as you might of guessed it was linked to recycling.

A new housing and commercial development surrounding the stadium has become the first development in the UK to utilise a system called "envac". The envac system involves having three bins in the courtyard of the development (one for non-recycling waste, one for dry recyclables and one for organic waste).

These bins house below them three corresponding chutes, once the chutes are full, the rubbish is dropped into a tunnel below. Giant fans create a vacuum effect and send the rubbish bags through underground tunnels for up to 2 km to a central collection building where the waste is removed by Brent Council.



The Envac system originated in Sweden where some systems have been up and running for 40 years, as with a lot of things we are, unfortunately running a little bit behind. The system I saw provided a really good solution to recycling on estates and in densely populated areas.

So when will Lewisham be full of vacuums and chutes? … the system works best when developers can put the tubes in before the properties are built - essentially it needs to go in as a fifth service and needs to be thought of early. To be cost effective it also needs to service a minimum of 500 properties - envac are speaking to a nuumber of large property developers a couple of which are considering using the system on developments in the borough!

Watch this space…and this video if you want to see what happens inside the tube!

The council should start collecting more stuff!!

@i love cars
Currently the council collect a number of materials from the kerbside and estates, these materials are: paper, cardboard, glass bottles and jars, tins, cans and plastic bottles. The council also provide a garden waste collection service which costs £10 for 10 green sacks.

The council is currently in negotiations with the company that process recyclables in the borough to add mixed plastics and tetra-paks (juice cartons) to this list. In the mean time tetra-paks can be recycled at:

Sainsbury’s New Cross Gate
Sainsburys Forest Hill
Laurence House car park in Catford
Grove Park Bus Garage Baring Road
Tesco Lewisham

If you want to recycle your mixed plastics you can take them to Sainsbury’s New Cross Gate and Sainsburys Sava Centre, Southend Lane. These sites will also accept batteries and energy saving lightbulbs (picture below)



Lewisham council also provide a free collection service for mattresses and the Reuse and Recycle Centre can be used for free to get rid of items of household waste.

Batteries can be recycled in all primary schools and libraries throughout the borough and the council are about to launch battery recycling from your doorstep!

Why not have a look at their website to see what else can be recycled at lewisham councils website

When will Lewisham get food waste recycling?

Lewisham currently doesn't collect food waste for a number of reasons; currently Lewisham's refuse (including food waste) is sent to SELCHP where it is incinerated and energy is recovered from it producing electricity which is then piped back into the national grid.

The ideal output for food waste if it were collected would be to take it to an Anaerobic Digestion (AD) plant - the ultimate output being generate electricity (the same thing which is happening at present with the waste being sent to SELCHP).

Although there are additional benefits to AD including the production of compost and nutrient rich fertiliser, at present these benefits are outweighed by the prohibitive costs of purchasing food waste bins and caddies for all lewisham residents as well as additional vehicles and crews to collect the food waste.

This is coupled with the fact that there are currently no AD plants within a reasonable proximity to Lewisham, meaning that the environmental impact of transporting the food waste would also need to be thought about.

However, never say never ... food waste is a valuable resource which can be utilised and should the situation arise when collecting food waste made both econmic and environmental sense I'm sure Lewisham would give it serious consideration!!

Lewisham Council's Head of Environment (Nigel Tyrell) wrote an interesting piece on the boroughs waste strategy which addresses the issue of food waste along with other plans.

Why can I only put plastic bottles in my recycling?

Veolia, the contractor that sorts and separates all the recyclable material for Lewisham Council stipulate that they want plastic bottles only. Whilst many residents are keen to add yoghurt pots, margarine tubs and plastic food packaging etc, to their recycling collections, Veolia say that there isn’t a market or demand for this kind of material and hence are reluctant to collect it.

Veolia also state that if they were to collect mixed plastics, they would need to shut down their sorting plant so that they can retro-fit additional machinery to capture this kind of material.

The Council however are still keen to press Veolia for a solution to this kind of material so that residents are able to put mixed plastics into their green bins or green boxes. In the meantime however, residents must continue to either try to reduce the amount of mixed plastics they purchase or dispose of this type of plastic using their refuse bin.