What happens to your recyclables?

3/20/08

By Kurt Heinchon
Environmental columnist

Residents and businesses throughout the region are continuing to divert their waste from landfills at an increasing rate. For 1999, through the end of September, a total of 2,505,000 lbs. of materials have been recycled compared to 1,693,000 during the same period in 1998- an increase of over 67%!

What is happening to all of this material that is being recycled? When materials are collected here at LSC, it is brought down to Northeast Kingdom Waste Management District (NEKWMD) located on Church Street in downtown Lyndonville, they are processed (bailed or crushed) and then transported to a facility where the material is recycled into new material or is further processed for recycling purposes. Look at what is happening to the materials you are recycling today….

Cardboard- new boxes and tissue paper.

White Office Paper- Re-pulped and made into tissue paper.

Colored Paper- cardboard, chipboard, brown tissue paper

Newspaper and Magazines mix- re-pulped to make more newspaper or match book type paper.

Glass- crushed and screened and made into other glass products.

Tin cans- smelted to make tin sheets and then back into tin cans.

Aluminum- smelted to make aluminum sheets and then back into aluminum cans

Plastics:
Are granulated and sold to blow molders to make toys and other plastic products
Can also be granulated and made into garden hoses, clothing, PET bottles, etc.
They are used to make the fleece clothing that keeps us nice and warm in the winter.

For more information, call the NEK Waste Mgmt. District at 1-800-626-3532 or you can visit LSC’s sustainability website.