On some occasions you may see our crews collect glass, paper, plastic and cans fully co-mingled together in a 'single compartment' vehicle. On these rare occasions the recyclable materials are mixed together and are not kept separate in the recycling collection vehicle as is normally done for recycling collections.
The reason for collecting all the recyclable material together is that we have had a vehicle breakdown and do not have enough specialist vehicles to collect the recyclable materials separately.
Therefore, we have negotiated with the recycling processor for these emergency occasions to process a limited quantity of material which is fully co-mingled i.e. glass included in with the other recyclable materials.
Processing a fully co-mingled collection can take place on a very limited basis at the transfer station where Amber Valley are currently taking all their recyclable material. Sorting glass from the rest of the recyclable material requires a much more complex separation process. Consequently there is limited capacity to process a fully co-mingled load and a significantly higher processing cost. Therefore, the most cost effective method of collecting recyclable materials is to keep the glass separate from the rest of the recyclable materials.
Therefore, we cannot start to collect glass mixed in with all the recyclable materials we collect in Amber Valley due to the increased cost of processing and the lack of overall capacity at the plant. So please continue to put out your glass separately in the caddy and only place paper, plastic cans and cardboard inside your recycling bin.
Contact the team directly on 01773 841326 or email refuse@ambervalley.gov.uk
