On Friday 25th January I had a fascinating visit to the FCC Environment Envirosort recycling centre near Norton.
The Envirosort facility receives, sorts and despatches all the clean recyclables collected from households across Worcestershire and Herefordshire, that is, all the cans, glass and plastic bottles, paper and light card put out for kerbside collection.
On my tour of the facility I saw how the contents of our recycling bins are sent and sorted using some amazing machines and also by hand. I also saw the new collection trucks that were introduced in October as part of an upgrade to recycling services in the district. The trucks enable all residents to recycle more than ever before from home including the addition of batteries, small items electric and electronic waste items and lower grade textiles that are not good enough to go to the charity shop for re-sale.The trucks themselves are also state-of-the-art, power by the latest euro 6 standard engines which are cleaner and produce lower emissions of nitrogen oxide (NOx) and fine particles; 80% lower of the NOx over the old truck and half the level of fine particles. In addition, the bin lifter at the rear of the vehicles is electric making them quieter and as they don’t rely of power directly from the engine, fuel consumption is reduced overall; up to up to 14% according to the manufacturer.
I then visited the Wychavon Depot which is the base for our local refuse collection team. Both teams do important work that we all too often take for granted. We should all remember not only to recycle but also to clean out cans and bottles and not put non-recyclable items in bins.
Later on in the day I visited Harvington First School. It was lovely to get around all the classrooms and hear directly from the pupils about what subjects they enjoy most and about all the extra curricular activities.
