What happens to recycling

Recycling is collected from homes and schools in Southwark and taken to our materials recovery facility.

This is a waste processing facility that separates materials by machinery and by hand to recover recyclable materials from a waste stream, which can then be taken to reprocessors to be made into new products.

It separates paper and card, cardboard, liquid food and drink cartons, plastic bottles, plastic food containers, steel tins, aluminium cans, and glass bottles and jars.

The video on the following link shows the Southwark Integrated Waste Facility in operation:

Where do the materials go?

All materials we collect and recover for recycling at our materials recovery facility are sent to reprocessing facilities, mostly in the UK.

However, sometimes, we export materials on what otherwise would be empty ships to make new products in another country. This could happen when there is not much demand at the time in the UK for those materials.

It still benefits the environment because the materials are recycled and not lost in a landfill.

Page last updated: 21 June 2023