Recycling - The Bigger Picture

Recycling refers to reprocessing a material to either make the same product again (e.g. an old glass bottle being melted to produce a new glass bottle), or making something new (e.g. old newspapers being processed to make recycled toilet paper). So the material needs to go through a physical change in order to be deemed as recycled.

The difference between reusing something and recycling it can often be confusing:

• a plastic bottle can be reused by rinsing it out and refilling it - the bottle has not undergone a physical change of any kind
• a plastic bottle can be recycled with lots of plastic bottles to make a fleece - here it would go through a physical change as it is shredded, melted down and reprocessed into a fleece.

Most things we use every day can be recycled and now we can recycle even more using the pink recycling sacks that are delivered to every household in the borough.

What can we recycle in Southend?

• Pink Recycling Sack Scheme
• Clear Textile Recycling Sack Scheme
• Blue Food Waste Bin Scheme