RUBBISH will be welcome at Witchford when the new green, clean recycling machine opens in the Autumn.

The recycling centre is the first purpose-built centre in the county to encourage more recycling and less landfilling.

In a matter of weeks people will be able to drop off waste ranging from cardboard, batteries and old mobile phones to carpets, tyres and engine oil.

Waste will be transferred to Waterbeach waste management park where some will be turned into compost for gardeners and farmers and others shipped around the UK and put to good use.

The environmentally friendly building is indoor, will be open daily for longer hours than the current Grunty Fen site and been designed so that customers won’t have to climb steps to get rid of their waste.

An innovative green roof will be constructed along with wooden cladding on the outside of the building. All work has been carried out by local construction firms.

Councillor Steve Criswell, Lead Member for Community Infrastructure at Cambridgeshire County Council thanked the local community, councillors and neighbouring businesses for their input.

“This new recycling centre will make recycling easier. It is a facility that we can all be proud,” he said.

Get involved and get your rubbish ready! Below are some examples of what will happen when you take your rubbish to Witchford Recycling Centre.

• Bicycle tyres are shredded at Wolverhampton and made into rubber crumbs for children’s playgrounds

• Fluorescent lightbulbs are crushed and materials separated. Mercury makes new fluorescent tubes, phosphor is landfilled. Glass and metal is recycled and sold

• Glass is processed back into bottles and jars in South Yorkshire. Because our collections are colour-separated, the processor can recycle our glass so it is back on shop shelves within 90 days

• Household batteries go to Staffordshire for recycling.

• Mobile phones are reset, memory deleted and SIM cards destroyed. Reconditioned phones go to third world countries for reuse, unsuitable phones go to UK mobile phone recycling points

• Small items like hairdryers and toasters go to Downham Market where parts are recovered and recycled by smelting or refining.

• Televisions and monitors go to Warrington if suitable for reuse. Others go to Kent where plastics, metals and circuit boards are processed and sold.

• Cooking oil goes to Thetford and used to generate green energy

• Engine oil goes to Cottenham. High quality oil is turned into tarmac. Low quality oil is used in the steel industry

• Green waste is composted in Waterbeach. It is taken by farmers or householders for gardens

• Plasterboard goes to Lincolnshire and is turned into an additive used in cement production or is made into new plasterboard

• Plastic bottles go to Norfolk for recycling into food packaging in Essex

• Wood is chipped in Waterbeach and recycled for chipboard for the construction industry. In the near future it will be used in a gasification plant to create energy