Where does our recycling go?

Cardboard and paper collected from your blue-lidded bin is transported to our bulking facility at Buntingford, before being taken to a paper sorting facility in Dagenham, Essex. There it is sorted into different grades of paper and card to be sent on to be recycled into new fibre-based products including newsprint, packaging, and tissue.

Cardboard and paper is collected separately as this helps to increase its quality and value. The separate collection is also part of the government's Simpler Recycling requirements.

Mixed recycling includes glass bottles and jars, aluminium and tin cans, cartons, plastic bottles, plastic pots, tubs and trays, and plastic bags and wrappings.

These materials are collected from your black-lidded mixed recycling bins (or from mixed recycling bins at flats) and taken to our bulking facility at Buntingford. It is then collected and taken to a Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) in St Albans, Hertfordshire, where your materials are sorted and separated for recycling.

The sorting process includes hand picking incorrect items from the load, screens which separates metals and glass by size and air jets which blow these items off the line, magnets separate the steel and eddy currents are used to separate aluminium. Optical sorters using near-infra red technology separate the different plastics by type and colour.

Once materials are sorted by type, they are then sold on to different processing factories to be made into new products.

Find out more about where your recycling is sent.

Check out the video to get a glimpse into the behind the scenes at our bulking facility. 

Food waste is collected from your brown outdoor food caddy and emptied into a dedicated food waste collection vehicle. Then it is taken to an anaerobic digestion processing facility near Baldock, Hertfordshire.

Anaerobic digestion uses bacteria to break down food waste in sealed containers, in the absence of oxygen. Biogas from the bacteria rises to the top of the tank, and is captured and used to power generators that create electricity, which is then fed into the national grid.

The solid content of the processed food waste becomes a safe, nutrient-rich fertiliser, stored in large containers, ready to apply to farmland twice a year.

To make it as easy as possible for everyone to recycle their food waste, you can now use plastic bags as well as compostable liners for your kitchen caddy. The plastic bags will be removed by machinery before the anaerobic digestion process starts, and are then sent for energy recovery as they are unfortunately too contaminated to be recycled at this point.

Learn more about what happens to your food waste after it's collected.

If you are signed up to the Garden Waste Collection Service, your brown wheelie bin is emptied into a collection vehicle and when full it is taken to a composting facility at Cumberlow Green, Hertfordshire.

The garden waste is tipped in an outside bay and is open windrow composted.

Garden waste is processed using different methods to food waste. This is why it is important to ensure that you do not put food waste into your brown garden waste wheelie bin and use your food waste caddy instead.