What happens to my recycling after its collected?

Recycling not only means that less waste is being sent to landfill, the items that you put in your green bin can all be put to good use.

The recycling collected in the Vale is taken to a Greenstar Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) at Aldridge for sorting while the food waste is processed in Oxfordshire at an Agrivert food waste plant. Wherever possible all materials will stay in the UK and be reprocessed into new products.

Paper and card - are sorted, cleaned and mulched before being used to make new products such as newsprint and cardboard packaging.

Glass bottles and jars - are cleaned and made into fine glass sand, which is then used to make new glass bottles and jars, fibreglass, concrete and road surfacing.

Tins and cans, aerosols and foil - the aluminium is reprocessed into new cans, while steel is used to make new products such as cans and car parts.

Plastic bottles - are 'flaked' and reprocessed back into new bottles.

Household plastic packaging - is separated into its different polymers and made into products such as food trays, clothing fibre and piping.

Food and drinks cartons - are mulched down and the different materials are separated. The paperboard (which makes up about 80 per cent) is used to make new paper products, the remaining plastic and aluminium can then be used to make furniture, to generate energy or even separated out into pure aluminium and paraffin.

Food waste - is taken to a special processing plant where it is made into an agricultural fertiliser for local farms or used to generate electricity.

Garden waste - is shredded and composted in the open air with the end product being used on local agricultural land as a compost/soil conditioner.

For more information about what happens to your recycling please see this page of the Biffa website This link will take you to an external website... to watch a video clip of a Blue Peter visit to a recycling facility.