PROJECT INTEGRA is doing its bit by making it easy and convenient for people in Hampshire to recycle their household waste … but are YOU doing your bit? Read on to find out how.

With an integrated approach to waste management, Project Integra takes recycling and waste minimisation very seriously. Integra’s statistics show a commitment to provide the best possible collection and recycling systems to suit the needs of people living within Hampshire’s boundaries.

For instance, throughout Hampshire, over 75% of households have access to a kerbside collection of recyclable materials. Regardless of the collection type, be it through the use of wheeled bins or boxes, plastic sacks or carrier bags, each scheme is designed with the householder in mind, and many different types of material are collected for recycling.

As a quick reminder, for the majority of households, all newspapers and magazines, aluminium and steel food and drink cans and plastic bottles can be set out for collection at the kerbside. Glass is not acceptable as it contaminates the other recyclables.

What happens next? Collected material is delivered to a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) where the recyclables are separated by a series of hand and machine sorting processes linked by conveyors. The materials are then bundled up and sold to recycling processors to be made into new products.

However, this is only the start. Within Hampshire, there are 26 Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs), where local people can bring their bulky household items for reuse or recycling. Old fridges and furniture as well as newspapers and magazines, textiles, glass, engine oil and green garden waste can be taken to these sites.

As much as possible is sold for reuse or is recycled. Green garden waste is taken to a composting site in Hampshire and is eventually bagged up and sold as a rich soil conditioner called Pro-Grow.

Additionally, there is a network of over 1,600 recycling banks throughout the Hampshire region. These sites can take various recyclable items, from glass only, to a full compliment of recycling facilities at the larger sites, where books, newspapers and magazines, cans, textiles, (sometimes plastic bottles), and glass can be easily deposited. These items do not need to go through the MRF because they have already been separated in the banks.

With all this activity and commitment, it must come as no great surprise that Hampshire’s recycling rate has leapt from 16% in 1998 to a magnificent 21% just before the millennium, and is increasing all the time.

As you can see, Project Integra really is doing its bit to promote sustainability by helping you to reuse and recycle, in order to safeguard the environment for future generations. So we ask you, Hampshire’s residents, are YOU doing YOUR bit?

11 October 1999