Source separation

May Gurney provides recycling services to households throughout England and Wales. More than 99% of the material we collect is through a source separated collection system which we believe is the most effective recycling method as it results in 99.5% of materials collected from doorsteps being recycled. Items put out for collection are sorted at the kerbside by recycling operatives.

Different materials are put into different compartments, on the recycling vehicle, for example paper will go into one section, glass into another and so on. The materials are separated in this way for two reasons. Firstly to stop them contaminating one another, for example glass breaking and getting mixed with paper. Secondly, because the materials are later stored and purchased by type, for example green glass, brown glass, paper etc.

Once collected, the materials are then taken to a May Gurney Environmental Services recycling depot where they are stored briefly before being bought by reprocessors or end users. Reprocessors and end users buy the recyclable materials and recycle them. For example, OI Glass (formerly British Glass) will buy the glass collected by May Gurney Environmental Services and recycle it into new glass.

May Gurney Environmental Services audits the collections coming into recycling depots. And then again when it is collected to by the ‘reprocessor’ who must be able to prove it is being recycled. It is through this careful monitoring that May Gurney Environmental Services can prove that 99.5% of materials it collects are recycled.

This system enables 99.5% of the materials collected to be recycled.

So why are 0.5% of materials not recycled? The two most common reasons are:

1. textiles put out for collection become wet and then cannot be recycled
2. if residents put items in plastic carrier bags the items in the bag will be collected for recycling – e.g. textiles, or paper and cans – but we cannot recycle the bags themselves.