Frequently Asked Questions
Q. There's no point recycling anything is there? Doesn't everything just get burned at the incinerater or landfilled?
A. There is every reason to recycle on the Isle of Man! Please be assured we DO NOT BURN OR LANDFILL the paper, glass, cans, batteries or plastic bottles we collect - EVERYTHING GETS RECYCLED. All our materials are reused or recycled into new products and we have full audit trails for these recycling routes.
KERBSIDE-COLLECTED MATERIALS
Please download our frequently asked questions & answers kerbside leafletat the bottom of this page.
For further details regarding our new kerbside collection shceme please click here to go to our dedicated kerbside recycling page.
MATERIALS COLLECTED FROM PUBLIC RECYCLING SITES (e.g. Grandstand / Tesco)
Q. What happens to the glass?
A. Glass stays on the Island. We collect it from the public recycling banks and deliver it Corlett’s quarry at Ballaharra, Peel. All the bottles and jars are sorted and cleaned, and then crushed. The particles of crushed glass are then used as a sand replacement in the production of patio paving flags at Corlett’s. So, not only are we re-using our glass, but we are also conserving our Island’s natural aggregate resources by reducing the need to quarry new materials.
Q. What happens to the aluminium cans?
A. They are delivered to a company called Island Can Recycling at Union Mills where they are sorted and crushed into large can ‘briquettes’. These briquettes are then transported to Warrington, Cheshire which has Europe’s largest aluminium can recycling facility, called Novelis. Here, the aluminium is processed and made into new, recycled cans which are back on our supermarket shelves within 6 weeks of being placed into our local recycling banks.
Q. What happens to the paper?
A. All our newspaper, magazines, junk mail is recycled at the UK’s largest paper recycling mill in North Wales. The mill is owned by a company called UPM Kymenne which processes paper to manufacture huge rolls of recycled newsprint. This newsprint is then sold to newspaper groups, including Isle of Man Newspapers, which use it to produce our Courier, Manx Independent and Examiner newspapers, so the island is really ‘closing the loop’ on recycling. As the paper mill is very strict about the quality of paper we deliver, we have to quality sort the paper before it leaves the Island, to ensure that the 28 tonnes of paper we deliver to the mill are not rejected by the mill. To achieve this, the paper is delivered to the Reception Hall (which is like a huge warehouse) at Energy from Waste Plant (SITA Isle of Man) where staff remove and dispose of any non-conforming materials (e.g. cardboard, telephone directories, plastic bags, milk cartons) from the rest of our ‘clean’ paper, before it is shipped to the mill.
Q. What happens to the household batteries?
A. The batteries are shipped off-Island by a local company, J Costain, Scrap Metal Merchants, and sent to G&P Batteries in the West Midllands for sorting and onward recycling within the UK and Europe.
The recycling scheme for household dry-cell batteries which commenced in June 2005 has resulted in the collection of over 11.1 tonnes of batteries. This an excellent achievement and equates to approximately 533,520 'AA' batteries, which is over HALF A MILLION! These are either the single use (disposable) or rechargeable batteries used in items such as torches, cameras, electronic games, computers, hearing aids and power tools. Working with Manx Co-op stores and all four Civic Amenity sites, the scheme provides collection points throughout the Island.
The public can also recycle any wet-cell batteries(e.g. lead-acid car batteries) through local Civic Amenity Sites.
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