What happens to your recycling?

All materials collected for recycling are recycled and are not sent to landfill.

Food waste and garden waste are composted.

Recycling collected in the blue box

Paper and cardboard is collected mixed together and taken to the Council Depot (Twickenham). Each lorry is weighed before tipping their load into a bay. The contents of the bay are then loaded onto a haulage lorry and transported to a range of approved recycling companies in the south east of England.

Recycling collected in the black box

Cans, foil,  plastic bottles, glass bottles and jars are collected mixed together and taken to the Council Depot (Twickenham). Each lorry is weighed before tipping their load into a bay. The contents of the bay are then loaded onto a haulage lorry and transported to Viridor Materials Recovery Facility in Crayford, Kent. They use mainly mechanical processes to separate the materials once separated they are sold on to reprocessors and recycled as follows;

  • Glass to be used as aggregate,
  • Steel cans recycled into new cans
  • Aluminium cans recycled into new cans
  • Plastic bottles recycled into fleeces, pillows, or more packaging.

Recycling collected from flats wheeled bins and recycling banks

All recycling is emptied into separate compartments on the collection lorries which bring it to the Council Depot. Each lorry is weighed before emptying the different compartments into separate bays for coloured glass, clear glass, plastic bottles, paper and cans. The cans are then sorted into steel and aluminium by hand and using magnets. When there is enough of a material to fill a haulage lorry it is transported to the following recycling companies;

  • Glass bottles and jars – O-I Manufacturing UK Limited, Essex – new bottles.
  • Aluminium cans – Novelis, Warrington, – new cars and other metal products
  • Steel cans – Monoworld Limited, Whitley, – new cans and other metal products
  • Plastic bottles – Recoup, Peterborough – new bottles, fleeces, pillows, new packaging

Textiles, clothes and shoes are collected and recycled by LMB 360 textile recycling.