What happens after the skip has carted away your waste
In London especially, once your hire skip has turned the corner it heads for the recycling plant.
Biological waste such as that produced by any normal household, or any other organic matter including paper, are easy to recycle, and first goes for sorting. Separating paper, plastic, aggregates, metals and glass and placing them into piles which constitute a ‘single type of material’ is the next stage. Complex items such as computers or electronic equipment is more difficult because of the time needed to dismantle and separate their components.
Plastic is sorted by its resin identification code which puts them into the category of a single type of material which then makes it easier to recycle into new products.
Organic matter, such as food and plant materials, is recycled using biological composting processes that digests and decomposes it. The end result is used for agricultural or landscaping concerns as mulch or compost. This process produces methane as a by product, called waste gas that when captured is then used for generating electricity.
Biological decomposition recycling methods are differentiated between aerobic and anaerobic. In anaerobic methods the energy content of the waste can be harnessed by turning it into direct combustion fuels, or other indirect types of fuel.
Thermal recycling produces fuel sources capable of being used for cooking or heating or for boilers that produce steam and electricity in a turbine.
The two types of thermal recycling are Pyrolysis and Gasification which entails heating waste products at very high temperatures with limited oxygen, in sealed a container under high pressures.
This entry was posted on Monday, June 22nd, 2009 at 9:24 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed.
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