It is amazing what some people think can go in their recycling bin.

Yesterday I visited the Suez recycling plant and saw a child’s car seat, a gas cylinder, lumps of wood, plastic bags galore and a tyre among the cardboard, tins, plastic tubs and bottles, and paper rightly on the conveyor belt. I don’t envy the staff whose job it is to sift through the stuff, picking out these rogue items.

Amazingly they can pull out an item a second as it whizzes past. The clean end product is baled to be sold for reprocessing into new items. At the moment there is a good price for these times, but the market can be volatile.

The plant handles recycling material for a number of local authorities, including Aberdeenshire. The £27 million facility was developed by Suez on behalf of Aberdeen City Council.

Before the pandemic struck the firm welcomed the public on Wednesdays, and they hope to restart these tours of the Altens plant again soon. https://www.suez.co.uk/en-gb/news/press-releases/190130-visitor-experience-launched-at-citys-recycling-facility