Plastics in Cheltenham are collected from your kerbside recycling boxes, the household recycling centre located at the Swindon Road depot and also at various bring sites across the town by our partner Ubico.
Ubico take the plastics to our recycling transfer station based at the Swindon Road depot. The plastics are sorted on a conveyor belt where a magnet picks up any items of metal that may be mixed in the plastic. Any other items such as card and paper are hand picked as it passes through. It then moves along another belt which begins the process of turning the pile of plastics into bales.
Next destination
Once baled at the Swindon Road depot the bales are transported to a recycling company ready for processing.
The recycling company sort the plastic using numerous conveyor belts and sensors to separate into specific grades of plastic. This process is repeated two or three times to make sure that the grades are fully sorted before being placed into big cages ready to be heated into pellets or shredded into flake.
Final destination
Once the pellets and flake are ready they are then sent to manufacturers to begin the process of turning the recycled plastic into new items such as
- Drink bottles
- Food trays
- Plant pots and horticultural trays
- Water pipe
We do everything we can to check that none of Cheltenham's plastics end up in plastic mountains in other countries
At present our plastics go to Jayplas, Biffa Waste Services, Pro Environmental and Roydon, where it is processed into flake for the UK and Europe.
Cheltenham Borough Council supports the reduction in the use of plastics, particularly single use plastics, and would encourage all residents to actively find alternatives to plastics where possible and practical.