Where do recycling and food waste go?
Food Waste
Watch the video below for a virtual tour of Severn Trent Green Power London facility:
Key facts from virtual tour:
- Fifty thousand tons of food waste are taken to this site per year
- This waste create three mega watts of electricity which is enough to power six thousand homes
- When the food waste arrives it is separated from packaging, macerated and liquid waste is added to it so that it can be pumped
- The waste is then pumped into digestion tanks and heated to body temperature
- The food then begins to breakdown and give off gas. This gas has methane in it which is captured and that is how renewable energy is created.
- The substance that is left over is fertilizer which is then spread over land.
Recycling
Recycling process:
- Recycling is sent to a local material recycling facility where it is sorted by machine and by hand
- Items are loaded on to a conveyor belt and loaded onto a vibrating machine which separates the cardboard, glass and paper from the rest of the recyclables.
- Sorted materials are then sent to different facilities to be recycled into many different items including newspaper and milk bottles.