Mixed waste turns into paper in a day

When a ton of mixed waste arrives at UPM's Shotton recycling plant, more than a third of it falls directly from the chute into the paper mill's warehouse and turns into newsprint within just a few hours.

At the same time, a lot of valuable products are created for sale: including aluminum, ferrous metals, clear plastic, white milk bottle plastic, and fiber suitable for packaging manufacturers.

UPM's Shotton mill in North Wales is the world's first newsprint manufacturer to separate some of its recycled fibre from the most diverse household recycling waste. It stands out among UK multiple recycling facilities (MRFs) for the quality of its products.

The facility receives recyclable waste from household collection containers, which includes paper, cardboard, glass, various plastics, aluminum cans and tins. The collection also includes all kinds of unwanted items. Households put everything together in one container, and to ensure proper mixing, the waste types are mixed in the facility's warehouse.

»We can feed in 42 tons of mixed recyclable waste per hour, but we can only separate 25 tons of paper per hour. Therefore, loads with a high paper content are not at all beneficial to our plant, even if we feed the paper directly to the factory,« says the recycling plant manager David Green.

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