Where Does All Your Recycling Go?

We take pride in our environment and have proved to be a well-performing District in terms of recycling and the amount of waste sent to landfill especially compared with other areas. We continually strive to become more sustainable, less reliant on landfill and improve our performance even further.

Thanks to the dedication of residents, the District has achieved 36.11% recycling rate and Waste growth has also reduced to 0.20%.

Kerbside collections

Paper and card: Paper and card from your black box goes to Essex Reclamation in Witham. The paper is then baled and taken to D S Smith Paper Mill in Kemsley, Near Sittingbourne.  It is then processed and pulped ready for recycling into writing paper, tissue and new packaging.

Cans: These materials are separated into steel and aluminium and than baled at Essex Reclamation in Witham.  They are then sent to processors in the UK and Far East for recycling into new metal products.

Glass: Glass from your blue box is taken to Essex Reclamation in Witham where it is then transported to Berrymans depots in the UK for onward recycling.

Plastic: The plastic materials that you recycle in your green boxbag are sorted into relevant grades and then transported to UK, European or Far East Mills for processing and recycling into new plastic products.

Food Waste: The food waste you recycle in your green caddy is taken to Essex County Councils transfer facility in Boreham.  From there it is then transported to an In Vessel composting facility, currently Envar in St Neots.

Garden Waste: Garden waste service is collected and composted by Appletons, a local company based in Tolleshunt Major. Collected green waste is then composted at the site, sold to local businesses and used by the council for parks and green spaces.

Bring Banks

Bottle Banks: Bottle bank glass goes to Berrymans in Dagenham to be reprocessed along with tins and cans. Please click here for a list of all recycling banks in the area.

Textile Banks: Textile banks either go to Salvation Army or L M Barry, a textile recycling company based in London . They also provide textile recycling in primary schools as a part of an educational programme.

Paper Banks: Paper banks are run by Aylesford Newsprint. Many collections are done by Green Recycling, a local business, who are sub-contracted by Aylesford. The paper goes from the banks straight to Aylesford based in Kent where paper is processed into newspaper in a matter of days.

Carton Banks: Cartons are collected by Recresco and then taken to European mills and recycled into high grade paper products.

Who Collects the Recycling?: Enterprise collects the recycling from households, where material is sorted at the kerbside. The material is taken to Essex Reclamation in Witham where it is recycled as detailed above.

The Future for Recycling: The drive to keep good quality recyclable material out of landfill is increasing each year. Not only is there a strong market to sell the materials to but each local authority will be heavily penalised for exceeding the stated limit of volume of waste entering landfill.

We have has always come well below the allowance level of waste entering landfill, but with limits lowered each year, an increasing amount of waste produced and recycling targets raised there is still a lot to do.