Why recycle? And what happens to it?

Recycling makes sense - both for our future and our wallets. Thanks to your hard work, we have a recycling rate of 45 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 2021/22.

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 Jayplas and transported to one of their facilities in South Normanton, Alfreton. Here it is sorted into different plastic types, which then undergo the processes listed below.

• Jayplas send PET bottles (Coca Cola and Fruit Shoot) to their washplant in Corby. Here they are processed into plastic flakes and sheet, ready to be made into trays for food packaging.

• HDPE bottles (milk jugs and cleaning bottles) are processed into plastic pellets at Jayplas’s washplant in Loughborough. The pellets are used to manufacture garden products and packaging in a range of industries.

• PP pots, tubs and trays are also processed into plastic pellets in Loughborough. The pellets are used to manufacture non-food packaging and paint pots.

• 2nd Fraction Paper/Film is sent to a Solid Recovered Fuel (SRF) facility in Staines Upon Thames. Here it is processed and then transported to energy from waste plants and cement kilns in the UK and Europe.

Aluminium

Aluminium cans, aerosol and foil from your red box are brought to our recycling depot and later collected by Real Alloy UK Ltd, an Aluminium Smelting Facility in Swansea.

Your aluminium waste is converted into aluminium alloy ingots which are then sold within the UK and across the European Union for use in the automotive, construction and packaging sectors.

Three quarters of the drinks cans sold in this country are made from aluminium. This creates a 95% energy saving rather than making aluminium cans from virgin material. So it’s worth the effort!

Glass

Your glass is collected from our depot in Coalville by Cello Recycling who transport it to a glass container re-melt factory in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. Here it is separated from any paper, aluminium caps and other non-glass items, these are recycled locally. The glass is then processed into glass cullet (crushed glass). During the process, the glass is screened by size and colour separated via optical sorting technology.

The glass cullet is directly melted on site into new containers for use in the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries.

Glass is recyclable pretty much forever – throwing it away really is a waste!

Steel

Once the steel has been baled at our recycling depot, it is sold to Newport Recycling who fragmentise the steel into ‘billets’ at a facility in Doncaster.

The steel billets are then sent to a number of companies such as Liberty Steel (multiple UK based facilities), Celsa in Spain, and Tata in London. At these facilities, the steel is melted and rolled ready to be made into lots of different products for use in the construction, automotive and aerospace industries.

Producing steel from recycled material saves 75% of the energy needed to make steel from virgin material. For every tonne of steel cans recycled 1.5 tonnes of iron ore, 0.5 tonnes of coal and 40% of water required in the production process is saved.

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 turned into recycled paper reels that go onto corrugators and box makers to be manufactured into new packaging.

Paper

We sell our paper to a company called UPM who transport it to their paper mill based in Shotton, Deeside, Wales. Here the paper goes through a pulping process and any contaminants are removed such as staples and plastic covers on magazines – these are sent to landfill. After the pulping process, all pulp is used to manufacture newsprint in the UK.

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.