A day in the life of our recycling team

This Recycle Week, we wanted to show you some of the real people who deliver our #recycling service to households across St Helens Borough. No matter the weather, Craig, Chris and Kyle are out in our communities every single day.
Their day starts when most of us are still in bed, with the team arriving at the depot at around 6am. Driver Craig carries out the daily inspection of the recycling truck - checking for any defects and ensuring that the oil, tyres and lights are all up to code - before he and the team hit the road.
An average day will see them visit circa 700 properties, where they collect all the recyclable waste, including food, plastics, cardboard, paper, glass and cans.
During their shift, the team meet residents and get a real sense of what is going on in the local community - they might even get to pet a few doggies too! Things like contaminated recycling bags and poor parking can cause problems, but nothing that Craig and the team can’t overcome.
After a quick lunch break, the team heads back out to continue their collections before unloading everything they’ve collected at local recycling facility, CEW. Once they’ve done that, they check to see if any other crews need any assistance, before heading back to the depot to call it a day.
Since April, we’ve collected more than 5,700 tonnes of recycling - including 1,383 tonnes of cardboard and 794 tonnes of plastic. Once processed, collected items will be turned back into things such as packaging and could be back on shelves in as little as 6 weeks!