To celebrate National Recycling Week, Wealden District Council is opening the doors of its Materials Reclamation Facility (MRF) in Uckfield to the general public on Saturday 23 June, between 10am and 2pm.
Residents will have the chance to see what happens to their recycling as it is sorted and processed. There will be displays and short films showing where the materials go once they leave the MRF and what happens to them as they are recycled back into usable products. Gardeners will also be able to purchase compost made from green waste collected from Wealden households and processed by KPS Composting in Isfield. There will be a competition to win a garden compost bin, and an opportunity to learn more about energy efficiency in the home.
“Wealden District Council prides itself on being able to make the most of the waste we collect at the kerbside and put it to good use,” said Cllr Rowena Moore, Cabinet member for Waste Management. “The Open Day is a chance for Wealden residents to see exactly what happens after their recycling is collected. You will be amazed at the how inventive some of the recycling processes are.”
The MRF, which is in Brambleside, Bellbrook Industrial Estate, Uckfield, was built in 1995. It enables household waste to be separated for recycling and sent on to be processed back into useful materials. Glass, paper, plastic bottles, beverage cartons, steel cans, aluminium cans and foil are all brought to the facility from the kerbside collections and from the recycling points around the District. Glass and paper are stored prior to being transported to recycling plants. Steel and aluminium cans, foil, beverage cartons and plastic bottles are sorted on a picking line to remove contaminants and put through machinery to be separated out ready for sending to the appropriate recycling plant..
Last year the Bellbrook facility handled over 21,000 tonnes of recyclable materials. Nearly 12,000 tonnes of this was from the Wealden District, which now recycles 44 per cent of the waste it collects. Bellbrook also handles recyclables from other local authorities.
