Environment Section – 21st July 2026
Piers Tharme and Natasha Lee welcomed us to the centre and the tour began in the John Rive building where Piers gave a few statistics comparing imports (not including fuel) with recycling exports in tonnage. The waste exports are approximately a quarter of the imports. The next largest amount being potatoes.
We then went into the main recycling area and discussed the problems involved with keeping the traffic moving, particularly on Saturdays, and also how cardboard is processed by the recycling centres in the UK. The centre makes no judgement on furniture or other items no longer wanted, but when an employee saw a friend throwing out a good suite he asked why, and was told that the owner was moving to Hong Kong and couldn’t give it away, including to the charity shops.
Then Piers led us down a short flight of steps to skip-level, and the first thing that struck us is how tidy it is.
Most waste is moved on quickly, but electrical waste is segregated. It’s known as Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment = WEEE. Large white goods are separated into those with cooling equipment, and those without. The ones with cooling equipment are shipped out to be taken apart, but the washing machines, as an example, can go in with the main metal waste. Small WEEE is divided on site. Currently the centre pays to have it taken, but the income can cover shipping costs.
Lithium batteries are a big problem for the industry – in the UK these cause a couple of fires every day. Despite a few scares, the centre has been lucky to avoid a major fire. One tonne of them is sent away every other week. The centre pay to have them taken away, but only realise enough from their resale to cover shipping costs.
Visual display equipment is treated separately, which is TV screens and iPads, not laptops which are small WEEE. These are shipped out approximately eight times a year. They cost £100 a tonne to deal with. There are valuable rare earth metals in the batteries, such as nickel cadmium, but there is no processing in the UK and they are sent to France or Germany. Once again, no income is received. LEDs cost £1,000 per tonne. These are processed in the UK with initially the aluminium being nipped off each end.
Currently in the UK five million vapes are processed a week. They could have a rechargeable battery, although the main problem is with the element going. They cause most of the fires in the UK and cost £15 per kilo to dispose of.
Leaving the main compound we went to the green waste area. In the distance was a large heap of ceramics, and these are ground down and used in road fill. Glass is made into sand.
Piers pointed out the piles of inert waste and said these have reduced due to a slowdown in the construction industry, but also the contractors’ awareness of recycling which results in building waste being ground into aggregate on site.
Green waste is mulched and shunted into long mounds of approximately 3m high by 3m across, allowed to decompose into humus, and sold off for compost. Plasterboard is ground down and mixed in with the green waste which is sold for agriculture.
No recycling waste makes a profit. At the end of the afternoon one of our group asked how much the Recycling Centre costs to run each year. Piers said he didn’t have that figure, but it was in the millions – although he added, the single millions. We should be grateful to live in an Island that takes recycling seriously and has a government that is prepared to spend this money to support it.
Author: Nicolette Westwood / Secretary Environment Section
nicolette@societe.je
Photo credits: Jooj Duquemin
