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Although some proportion of waste will end up on a landfill site or being incinerated, more and more waste materials can be put to good use. Waste carriers aim to reuse and recycle as much of their clients' waste as possible, lowering their carbon footprint and also raising the profile of their business. Fly-tipping and illegal waste disposal is still a big problem, but the Northern Ireland Environmental Agency (NIEA) is cracking down on those in breach of environmental law. They can impose sanctions ranging from an order to rectify damage caused by improper disposal of waste to a large fine or legal action. A good deal of building materials can be put back into the construction industry, or various similar industries, with little or no further processing. Excess wood and metal can be sent to salvage yards to be cleaned and reused. It would be best to avoid dumping easily reused materials in the skip at all, e.g. plain timber that could make good firewood, as it is just taking up unnecessary room. A lot of waste in skips can be returned to a raw state and sent back to manufacturers to produce new materials. Recycling plants such as a Materials' Recycling Facility (MRF) sort through waste, select what can be recycled and prepare it for future use. Metals are separated and then sent to licensed scrap merchants or smelting facilities to be processed and manufactured into clean, new metals that can be used in construction. Plastic can be separated and sent to a reprocessing plant where it is cleaned and reused or it can be shredded, melted down to form beads and sent back to suppliers of plastics. Wood that can't be reused can be chipped and turned into woodchip and MDF materials. It can prove handy as bedding for farm animals or pellets to be used in household heating. Even timber containing nails can be recycled, as they can be extracted at the recycling plant using powerful magnets.
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