Skips get filled with a whole range of materials. These can include anything from old desks and chairs to rubble from building sites; garden trimmings to fence panels.
Have you ever wondered where all that skip waste goes? After you’ve filled it up, the last you see of it is when the lorry drives away with it on the back. It’s all got to go somewhere.
Some people may think that all skip waste goes into landfill, but this is certainly not the case. Skip hire companies will endeavour to recycle as much of the collected waste as possible. If the company has a station dedicated to waste transfer, your waste is likely to be responsibly recycled.
There are a few stages the waste needs to go through first, depending on the type of waste it is.
Sorting
The first step is to sort through the materials and remove any large items. Sorting through the waste makes it easier to conclude what items can be recycled and helps ensure there are no hazardous materials in the skip.
All skip hire companies have strict guidelines about what you can and can’t put in a skip, as well as rules about medical waste and plasterboard. Filling your skip with these items makes the company’s job much harder and can even cause harm to individuals.
Once the sorting process is complete, the waste goes into loading bays to prepare it for treatment. Certain materials get transported to other locations depending on their value.
Any responsible skip hire company will make sure that items of value are recycled rather than put into a landfill.
Recyclable items of value can include:
- Scrap metal
- Electrical goods
- Building materials
Any waste that isn’t recyclable will either go into a landfill or get incinerated. However, most skip companies do their best to avoid this due to the negative environmental effects.
Treatment
Depending on the material type, waste is treated in a mixture of screening, shredding and compacting processes. For instance, all soil gets screened, building rubble gets crushed, and scrap metal gets stripped down into subcategories.
The treatment stage prepares all the waste for the final recycling stage. Lastly, the waste goes into larger containers, then is transported to other specialist facilities to undergo further treatment and recycling procedures.
Processing
Waste processing is varied. Sometimes it takes place on the skip company’s grounds, but, mostly, it’s outsourced to other facilities to ensure the most is made of your waste.
All rubbish items pass through waste processing centres. Its material type dictates its processing procedure.
Wood and garden waste can be chipped, mulched and sent out as material for landscaping. Wood is also able to be converted into biomass as a renewable energy source.
Cardboard and paper waste gets processed and baled. It’s then put back into the production system where manufacturing companies will restart the lifecycle. Metal gets treated similarly, allowing it to go back into the manufacturing process and restart the cycle.
All concrete, rubble and hardcore get crushed and reduced to make it suitable for use as aggregates by construction companies, ensuring nothing gets wasted.
Old computers and other electrical goods get utilised by the energy industry for electricity generation.
But, what about leftover rubbish? Any remaining materials are classified as residual waste and are used as a Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF). RDF is something that’s used to generate energy at a dedicated RDF plant.
Are you looking to rent a skip? Check out AKS Skip Hire Services for skip hire in Norwich.