The festive period is traditionally a time of significant extra rubbish produced by homes and businesses, but it also means plenty to recycle.
Michael Grime, the managing director of the Guernsey Recycling Group, was anticipating at least an extra 10% of materials coming through.
‘The thing about waste is we say that it doesn’t sleep, but also it doesn’t necessarily stay the same. The quantities can change in terms of different streams of waste and, in the online world that we all live in now, the Amazon boxes and other online retailers for which cardboard is the main medium for goods to travel, we start to see more and more of that.
‘So it’s always interesting to see what Father Christmas brings and what waste ends up here, and our main issue is to make sure we’re ready to handle it.’
One of the big questions in the recycling world at this time of year is whether wrapping paper can go in the clear recycling bags.
It was explained that this can be resolved by doing the ‘scrunch test’, which involves scrunching up the wrapping paper in your hands, and if it stays in a ball it can go in the clear recycling bag, but if it bounces back it means that it is made of a synthetic material and it has to go in the black bin.
When items go into the recycling bags it is easy to forget about them, but their lifespan carries on and Mr Grime explained what happens out of sight.
‘It’s a big effort across the island. The waste collectors go out at night, we always call them the waste fairies that go out and make your waste disappear, we open our depot here in the early hours of the morning so that waste can be received, and then we have our processing team that arrive very early morning. So it goes through our processing which is opening up the bags and releasing material, checking for non-conforming waste, if there’s anything in there that shouldn’t be in there, and the name of the game then is separating out all of the materials that are in those bags to ensure that everything that comes out of that can be recycled.
‘At the endpoint we prepare for onward shipment from the island, so waste doesn’t sleep and it’s a long day for the guys to get it done and they do a sterling job and it’s something that we’re proud of.’
In the warehouse near the Bridge the process of sorting and compacting looks seamless, although sometimes staff have to pull out items which have ended up there because of wishful recycling.
Islanders can help by cleaning out tins and cans and squashing plastics before chucking them in the bags.
With Guernsey having one of the best recycling rates in the world, Mr Grime said it was heartening to see how well supported the system was.
‘We kindly ask that people really stick to what should go in the bags through this busy period, that would be greatly appreciated.
‘There’s so much positive energy and interest in doing the right thing for recycling and sustainability on the island, that I think people are questioning and wanting to do that if they possibly can.’
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