Why recycle? And what happens to it?

Recycling makes sense - both for our future and our wallets. Thanks to your hard work, in 2019/20 our recycling rate increased to 46.3 percent - which is above the national average! Our Recycle more... action plan is packed with actions to help us to increase our recycling rate to 50 percent by 2023.

Your recycling efforts also help to keep your council tax down by generating around £500,000 a year which is re-invested into council services.

But it also means we're cutting the amount we landfill every year. Using recycled materials to create new products saves energy and the need to dig up more precious natural resources.

We go out to the market place every two months with our recycling, ensuring we achieve the best prices. On this page you can find out what we currently do with your recycling after we've collected it.

What happens after we collect your recycling?

Take a look at the video below to find out what happens to your recycling after we collect it from your house!

After transporting it to our depot, further separating and baling the recycling, we sell each type of recycling to different re-processing companies...

Plastic

All our plastics are recycled right here in the UK! Plastic from your red box is collected from our depot by Biffa and transported to one of their Plastic Recycling Facilities in Aldridge. The plastic is sorted into different plastic types before being sent to a Biffa facility in either Redcar or Seaham.

Here’s what your plastic is recycled into:

• PET bottles (Coca Cola and Fruit Shoot bottles) are sent to Biffa Polymers in Seaham. They are then processed into plastic flake, ready to be made into containers, trays and bottles for the food and beverage packaging industry.
• HDPE bottles (milk jugs) are sent to Biffa Polymers in Redcar, then washed and flaked or pelletised so they can be made into new milk bottles.
• PP pots, tubs and trays are processed into plastic flake at Biffa Polymers in Redcar. The flake is then used for a wide range of items such as buckets, paint trays through to car parts.
• Any 2nd Fraction Paper/Film is sent to a Waste to Energy facility, where the energy in the material is recovered to create electricity and heat.

Check which types of plastic you can recycle

Aluminium

Aluminium cans, aerosol cannisters and foil from your red box are brought to our recycling depot and later collected by Tandom - a reprocessing facility based in Cheshire.

The aluminium is melted in a furnace so it can be made into aluminium alloy ingots. The aluminium alloy ingots are then used in various industries in the UK and worldwide to create new aluminium products such as car parts and drinks cans.

Did you know, recycling aluminium drinks cans saves up to 95% of the energy needed to make aluminium from its raw materials? So recycling your aluminium cans is worth the effort!

Check which aluminium items you can recycle

Glass

This is collected by URM who transport it to their material recovery facility in Knottingley, West Yorkshire. Here it is separated from any paper, aluminium caps and other non-glass items, and processed into glass cullet (crushed glass). This process involves screening the glass by size and colour and separating it with optical sorting technology.

The company then send the glass cullet to a number of companies in the UK who process the cullet into new bottles and jars for use in the food and beverage industry.

Glass is recyclable pretty much forever – throwing it away really is a waste! Check which glass items you can recycle

Steel

Steel cans and tins from your red box are collected from our depot by Clearpoint Recycling. They process and re-bale the steel cans into mill grade bales.

This means they are ready to be processed into new steel products by TATA Steel in Port Talbot and sometimes by  Celsa Steel in Cardiff, for use in the construction, automotive and aerospace industries. No steel is exported outside the UK.

Check which steel items you can recycle

Cardboard

We sell cardboard to Smurfit Kappa who take the baled cardboard to their depot in Tamworth, ready to be sent to their Kent or Birmingham mills. 100% of the cardboard sent to these mills is processed into recycled paper reels that go onto corrugators and box makers to be manufactured into new packaging.

Check how to recycle cardboard in the yellow bag

Paper

We sell our paper to a company called Newport Recycling who transport it to a paper mill in Gent, Belgium. Here the paper goes through a pulping process and contaminants such as staples are removed. The pulp is pressed, rolled and dried to create newspaper used in the UK and Europe.

Check how to recycle paper in the blue bag

Textiles

Find out how to recycle old clothes, shoes, accessories and bags - and what happens to it.

Garden waste

We deliver your garden waste directly to an open windrow composting facility in Lount, near to Ashby operated by SUEZ. The garden waste is shredded and placed into windrows (long heaped rows) which are turned on a regular basis over a 14 week period after which it has matured into a PAS 100 compost. PAS 100 is a standard for composting recognised in the organics recycling sector. The compost is used on agricultural land and capping old landfill sites all within the UK.