South Kesteven District Councillors visit Mid UK recycling facility ahead of purple bin roll-out

Councillors visited a recycling facility ahead of the roll out of a new purple-lidded recycling bin.

Members of South Kesteven District Council visited Mid UK Recycling at Barkston Heath as part of the twin-stream recycling programme that will see paper and card collected in a separate, purple-lidded, bin.

They were shown where South Kesteven’s mixed, dry recyclable material goes – and learned more about the process of separating the waste streams and removing any contamination.

They were also shown the final separated material that is made ready for re-processing for manufacture into new products.

The visit will help councillors explain to the public why it is important to ensure the right materials are put in the right bins, ahead of changes to collections in South Kesteven early next year.

Councillor Ian Selby said: “As chairman of the environment overview and scrutiny committee I’m delighted that we were able to visit Mid UK Recycling at Barkston Heath.

“We found it a fascinating visit and it helped give a much better understanding of how household waste is recycled. It really is an impressive recycling operation.

“The operation is massive and on a 25-acre site, with nearly 200 employees.

“Safety of the employees featured as a high priority. Fires, due to unsavoury items thrown into the waste by the public, are regularly extinguished on the site, during some periods it happens daily.”

Mid UK is Lincolnshire County Council’s contractor to process and separate materials for recycling for all of the districts in Lincolnshire, repurposing glass bottles, plastic bottles, pots, tubs and trays and metal tins and cans – and paper and card too for those not yet moved into the Twin Stream process.