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What happens to your recycling?

What happens with your recycling once collected from your home, organisation or business?

Did you know that your council is legally required to document and report your waste’s destination as part of its waste management activities?

This article uses three local councils to showcase what typically happens to your waste: How it’s sorted, where it’s processed and what end product it (probably) becomes!

Contents:

What happens to your recycling: An overview
North West Leicestershire
East Sussex
West Oxfordshire
Controversies

What happens to your recycling: An overview

Your waste recycling journey starts when you segregate your waste in separate bins. Residential or commercial waste collection trucks collect it for sorting, processing, and recycling into new materials.

As far as people are concerned, their carefully separated waste goes into a magic recycling box and comes out as new materials that are used in products that claim to be made of [insert % of] “recycled” [insert material].

While this is how it works in most cases, reports of British waste exports being illegally dumped abroad, perfectly recyclable waste being incinerated, and other discrepancies have been causing alarm for many decades.

To tackle this, parliament introduced a mandate in the Waste Regulations 2011 that requires English councils to report their waste collection and recycling activities to the Environment Agency and publish a report detailing these activities, including the processes and destination of their waste.

Despite little media attention, these documents shed light on the realities of British waste management. It helped us realise that many councils (e.g. Hertfordshire County) have effectively reduced the amount of waste sent to landfills through incineration, not necessarily through increasing domestic and commercial recycling rates.

To illustrate what may typically happen to your waste, we picked a mix of district and county councils with good reporting practices to give you some insights into the processes your recyclables may be subject to and their reported destination.

What happens to recycling waste in Britain?

But before discussing individual councils, you should know that most recyclables in the UK go through the same well-established recycling processes. Our “How Materials are Recycled in the UK” article explains these in detail.

Additionally, there are renowned recyclable destinations with ample infrastructure to process them and the right economic conditions for them. Here are the typical tendencies:

Recyclables Stream	Typical Recycling Location
Paper and Cardboard	Mostly recycled in the UK (e.g. Smurfit Kappa, Northampton).
Glass	Mainly recycled in the UK (e.g. Recresco, Cwmbran).
Plastics	Primarily recycled in the UK (e.g. Veolia, Rainham); some exported to Turkey and Malaysia.
Metals	Recycled in UK facilities (e.g. EMR, Liverpool); some exports to Europe.
Food Waste	Processed in UK anaerobic digestion plants (e.g. Biogen, Milton Keynes).
Garden Waste	Composted in UK facilities (e.g. SUEZ, Surrey).
Textiles	Sorted and recycled in the UK (e.g. SOEX, Huddersfield); significant amounts exported to Africa and Asia.
Electronics (WEEE)	Recycled in UK facilities (e.g. Recolight, London); some components exported for further processing.
Wood	Recycled into wood products or used as biomass fuel in the UK (e.g. Biffa, Birmingham).
Batteries	Recycled in UK battery recycling facilities (e.g. G&P Batteries, Darlaston); certain types exported to Europe.

These destinations, especially abroad, can change anytime depending on geopolitics, economics, and UK waste regulations.

What happens to recyclables in North West Leicestershire?

North West Leicestershire (NWL) is a rural district in the Midlands. We picked it because of its council’s detailed reporting.

While commercial waste collection companies use their own or a partner’s Material Recovery Facility (i.e. where waste is sorted and baled), all residential recyclables in NWL go to a special depot in Coalville.

Dry Mixed Recyclables and single-stream cardboard, paper and glass are accepted at this depot. Metals are separated by magnets and glass from plastic with centrifugal machines.

Once each stream is separated, the waste is baled and stored for up to two months until the council finds a broker to take it the rest of the way.

The processes and destinations reported by the council are as follows:

Waste Stream	Description
Plastic	Recycled in the UK by Cello Recycling Ltd. in Manchester. Plastic is washed, sorted, shredded, and melted into pellets. PET bottles become new containers and bottles, HDPE bottles are used for garden products and packaging, and PP pots and trays become non-food packaging and paint pots. Any residual paper/film is processed into Solid Recovered Fuel.
Aluminium	Aluminium cans, aerosols, and foil are collected by Swan Alloy and taken to Swansea. Here, they are remelted into ingots for use in producing new aluminium cans in the UK, France, and Germany.
Glass	Processed by Cello Recycling Ltd. in Yorkshire, sorted by colour, and turned into glass cullet. The cullet is melted and made into new food, beverage, and pharmaceutical containers, all within the UK.
Steel	Steel cans and tins are baled by Clearpoint Recycling and processed by Sims Metal in Smethwick. The steel is re-baled into mill grade bales and used by TATA Steel, British Steel, Liberty, and Celsa for new steel products in the UK.
Cardboard	Sold to Data Shredders and taken to Cambridgeshire. It is baled and sent to various mills in the UK to be recycled into reel cores and corrugated paper.
Paper	Sold to Data Shredders and taken to Cambridgeshire. The paper is shredded and sent to various UK mills to be made into recycled paper, toilet roll, and wipes.
Textiles	Information on recycling old clothes, shoes, accessories, and bags is available, detailing how these items are processed.
Garden Waste	Delivered to an open windrow composting facility in Lount, operated by SUEZ. The waste is shredded, composted in windrows, and turned into PAS 100 compost, used on agricultural land.

Source: North West Leicestershire District Council

What happens to recyclables in East Sussex?

East Sussex is the county council that includes Eastbourne, Hastings and other London commuter towns and villages.

Unlike a district council, East Sussex County can handle a wider range of recyclable materials, including batteries, tyres, and plasterboard.

East Sussex Council works exclusively with private contractors for waste collection, sorting, processing and subsequent sale of the waste.

Here are the processes and destinations reported by the county council:

Waste Stream	Description
Cardboard and Paper	Processed in the UK and abroad. Cardboard ends up as packaging materials. Paper is pulped, cleaned, and made into new paper products.
Plastic Bottles	Sorted into different grades in the UK. Turned into raw material for food packaging.
Glass and Lightbulbs	Glass bottles and jars are processed at UK plants to make new bottles and jars. Fluorescent tubes and lightbulbs are crushed and separated in Surrey; materials are reused.
Metal, Electricals and Electronics	Metals sorted locally and processed into new products. Aluminium cans go to Wales or Cheshire; steel cans go to various UK plants. Electricals are dismantled in Lewes and recycled.
Textiles and Shoes	Wearable items sent to developing countries; others become industrial rags or stuffing for cushions and mattresses.
Green Garden Waste	Processed locally at Whitesmith, East Sussex. Turned into compost for agricultural use and available for residents to buy.
Construction Waste, Wood, and Plasterboard	Rubble is re-used in UK construction. Timber processed locally into woodchip. Plasterboard processed in Kent; gypsum used as fertilizer or for new plasterboard.
Oil, Batteries, and Tyres	Engine oil cleaned and reused. Cooking oil turned into biofuel in Norfolk. Car batteries processed in Derbyshire. Household batteries are sent abroad for treatment and black mass recycling. Tyres used in Worthing for engineering projects or sent abroad.

Source: East Sussex County Council

What happens to recyclables in West Oxfordshire?

West Oxfordshire is a district council with an above-average recycling rate of 85% (nearly double the England average of 43%).

They achieve this through dry mixed recycling, with glass recycling being the only separate stream due to local infrastructure.

Their waste management includes a ‘dynamic collection’ system that adjusts the collection frequencies of different wastes to ensure that waste spikes, such as Christmas, do not affect the quality of waste management.

The district also boasts a wealth of recycling infrastructure, such as the anaerobic digestor in Cassington and the Showell composting facility.

Here are the processes and destinations reported by the council:

Waste Stream	Description
Mixed Items	Taken to SUEZ Material Recovery Facility in Birmingham for sorting and separation. The majority is reprocessed in the UK (around 85%).
Glass Bottles and Jars	Taken to URM in West Yorkshire. Sorted by colour, melted in a furnace, and moulded or blown into new bottles or jars.
Plastics	Sorted on a conveyor belt, washed, chipped into smaller pieces, melted, and made into pellets for new items such as bottles or garden furniture.
Non-recyclable Plastics	Collected in grey bins and taken to Ardley Energy Recovery Facility where it is incinerated to produce electricity.
Garden Waste	Delivered to Severn Trent's Showell composing facility near Chipping Norton. Shredded, composted in windrows, and used as agricultural compost.
Food Waste	Taken to an anaerobic digestion plant near Cassington. Micro-organisms break it down to produce biogas for electricity, heat, or transport fuels, and digestate for fertiliser.
Recycled Textiles and Shoes	Repurposed as second-hand clothes or used as secondary raw materials for the local car, building, or textile industries.

Source: West Oxfordshire District Council

Controversies with recycling reporting

Councils provide a wealth of information about waste management, which is a great start. However, the quality and detail of information can vary per council, and the recyclables supply chain can often become so complex that councils can’t track it precisely, especially when it is sent abroad.

Also, while energy-from-waste is a valid method of avoiding landfilling, it is also being used to improve waste statistics without necessarily contributing to a circular economy. While this is not a reporting controversy, we believe the media is seriously under-scrutinising and under-reporting this blatant controversial strategy (Some see this as a stepping stone to improving recycling rates, but others believe this is slowing down improvements in recycling rates).

In any case, we encourage residents and business owners to visit their local council’s website and learn what is actually happening with their waste!

What happens to your recycling? – FAQs

Our business waste experts answer commonly asked questions about what happens to your recycling in the UK.

How much recycling gets recycled in the UK?

In the UK, around 17% of the waste collected for recycling is discarded due to contamination. This contamination occurs when non-recyclable items or improperly prepared recyclable items (e.g., items not rinsed clean) are mixed with recyclables, rendering batches unsuitable for processing. Contaminated batches often end up in landfills or incinerated instead of being recycled.

Does recycling actually help?

Of course, it does. Recycling is almost always less resource-intensive than manufacturing products from virgin materials. It requires less water, work, processing, etc. This is why recycling is an integral part of the circular economy.

Is recycling expensive?

It depends on who you ask. Recycling can be immediately more expensive than landfilling or incineration due to the higher costs associated with collecting, sorting, and processing recyclable materials. However, the long-term impacts of environmental issues from not recycling on the economy can be much larger, but they are ignored because they are so difficult to quantify. Who will pick up the bill of having to mine asteroids and Mars after exhausting all metal resources on Earth?

What is the most expensive thing to recycle?

Electronic waste, such as smartphones and computers, is the most expensive to recycle due to its complexity, hazardous substances requiring specialised handling, and labour-intensive processes. However, recycled metals can fetch large amounts of money in the market, making it a highly profitable enterprise for many.