Recycling moves up a gear at Easter Langlee
Monday, August 18 2008
Recycling has moved up a gear at the Scottish Borders Council (SBC) Easter Langlee site.
Thanks to a new piece of machinery, rubble from roadworks can now be recycled instead of being diverted to landfill.
In the past, the Council and other parties such as utilities companies had to dispose of materials from construction work at the nearest landfill site.
Now, many of these materials can be recycled and re-used. This reduces the amount going to landfill and helps SBC in its efforts to meet national targets.
Materials are brought in to the site and put through a machine which separates them into three piles – oversized, medium and fine.
The oversized material is put in a pile and when the quantities justify it, a crusher is brought in. This crushes the material (even any reinforced metal found within the rubble) to make quarry stone.
The medium material is put through the new unit – the ‘Power Scrub’ – which power washes the stone, allowing it to be separated into three sizes of gravel and a coarse sand, all of which can then be re-used.
The fine material currently still goes to landfill but the tonnage has been vastly reduced thanks to the Power Scrub allowing medium-sized rubble to be recycled.
Last year, 50,000 tonnes of material were taken to Easter Langlee and between 80 and 90 per cent of this was recycled.
Unified Solutions.