A group of people from Horsforth recently had an interesting tour of HW Martin, this is the place where all our recycling from the Leeds green bins go to be sorted.
Some points that came out of it were:
- Leeds recycles more types of materials than many cities, such as stretchy plastics and tetrapaks.
- How much non-recyclable rubbish is put in our green bins.
- The market for recycled plastics is poor, so trying to reduce your plastic use would help.
- Never put batteries or vapes in your green or back bin, they can explode and catch fire. Recycle them at battery drop offs at supermarkets or at the tip.
- Although we can now put glass in the green bin, it’s still better to use bottle banks if possible.
- Despite machinery and technology being used, there are still lots of people manually sorting our green bin waste.
- Our paper and cardboard gets sent to India, so it’s better to reduce/reuse/compost where possible.
If anyone else is interested in going on a tour, email waste.contracts@leeds.gov.uk
The 1 hour tours are at 10am on weekdays, for groups of up to 15 people.
