What Happens to Our Recycled Waste?
After collection from our homes our waste and recycling is taken to the Council’s depot in Earlswood from where it is transferred to specialist sites.
Food Waste
Food waste is reprocessed at an anaerobic digestion plant and last year this was all within the South East of England. During the 30-day digestion process methane gas is produced and captured, then used to fuel engines that generate electricity. Fertiliser is also produced for farmers to grow crops.
Our food waste is now mostly processed at the Suez Surrey Eco Park in Shepperton and some at Biogen plants. The site’s reprocessed food waste produces enough electrical power to fuel more than 500 homes a year as well as producing fertiliser sufficient to grow crops on a 350-acre farm.
Paper & Cardboard
All the paper and card collected is taken to the DS Smith’s Kemsley Paper Mill in Kent where it is reprocessed into new cardboard packaging. This huge paper mill, initially built in the 1920s to supply newsprint to the newspaper industry, is now part of Europe’s largest recycler of paper and cardboard converting waste paper into new cardboard products within 14 days.
Mixed Recyclables
Biffa Waste Services are contracted to collect all the Borough’s mixed recyclables which are transported to their Aldridge Material Recycling Facility in the West Midlands. Here, items are automatically separated out into different materials for onward recycling. In 2020/21 more than 98% of our mixed recycling was processed in the UK.
• Tins, cans, foil, and aerosols are separated into steel and aluminium and recycled into new steel and aluminium products.
• Glass bottles and jars are separated out for ether smelting into recycled glass bottles or jars or used as an aggregate in the construction industry.
• Plastic bottles, pots, tubs, and trays are sorted into the different polymer types and colour and turned into new recycled plastic packaging or plastic based products.
Built in 2008, the Aldridge MRF (Materials Recovery Facility) plant now specialises in plastic separation, with recent upgrades to the latest technology and processing equipment, meaning it can polymer and colour separate up to 80,000 tonnes of plastic recycling a year to high specification grades. The resulting materials are sent to Biffa’s 3 polymer recycling plants. Biffa are a leading recycler of food grade HDPE – did you know that Biffa’s plastic is used in 8 out of 10 UK plastic milk bottles?
Garden Waste
Garden waste is taken to local composting sites at KPS in Isfield and Woodhorn Group near Chichester where it is shredded into small fragments to accelerate the decomposition process.
After about 10 weeks, the end product is graded and used as a soil conditioner and source of nutrients in either landscaping projects or on farmland.
The Suez Surrey Eco Park Facility in Shepperton
Biffa’s MRF – Aldridge
Kemsley Paper Mill – Sittingbourne Kent
Woodhorn’s Chichester Garden Waste Processing Centre – Chichester