Where does my recycling go?

Most recycling that we collect can be "recycled" back into the original material. For example, paper becomes more paper. Some materials, such as crushed glass and plastic bottles, have a more interesting after life. The mixed glass we collect can be sold to the aggregate industry and is used in road construction. Plastic bottles can end up reprocessed into a plastic toy, garden furniture, or even be worn as a shoe or a fleece. About 25 plastic bottles make up a fleece, so that's certainly something to think about when you recycle your next water bottle!

Our collectors pick up your recycling and put it all into the smaller of the two compartments at the back of one of our vertically divided or "split back" refuse compaction vehicles. Once the recycling load is full, it is driven into Cremorne Wharf, Lots Road, Chelsea SW3. The recycling is tipped out at Cremorne, bulked up and emptied into large containers ready to travel by road to Grosvenor Waste Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) in Crayford, Kent. A MRF (pronounced murf) diverts as much waste as possible away from landfill and into reprocessors and manufacturing. Grosvenor MRF is particularly good at handling the mixture of dry recycling collected from Kensington and Chelsea.

To see how a MRF operates, you can view a video on the Grosvenor Waste website. The video takes you through the recycling process, from the driver arriving at the weighbridge, to the materials being loaded onto conveyors, through mechanical and automated sorting, right up to baling of the sorted materials.