Where does my recycling go?
Have you ever wondered just what happens to the materials you recycle, where they go and what they become in their new life?
Materials collected at the kerbside are taken to one of two material recycling facilities - Hurn, Christchurch and Hybris Business Park, Crossways. Here they are stored and prepared ready to be sold to recycling factories and made into new products.
Most recycling is separated into the different materials at the kerbside, so little sorting takes place at these facilities. By sorting recycling on the collection vehicles, it means that different materials don't get mixed up and become contaminated, making them easier to sell.
What happens to items collected at the kerbside:
| Where it goes | What it is made into | |
| Steel cans | Abbey Metals, Dorchester | Sheet steel which is used for goods such as fridges, cutlery, cars and more cans |
| Aluminium cans | Abbey Metals, Dorchester | Products like aeroplanes, ladders, foil and more cans |
| Paper | UPM, Shotton Paper, Flintshire | Newspaper or more paper |
| Plastic bottles | Go to one of these five: Regent Hill Ltd, Surrey Eurokey Recycling Ltd, Leicester Closed Loop Recycling, Essex AWS EcoPlastics Ltd, Linconshire Jayplas, Derbyshire | They are washed and sorted into different plastic grades like HDPE, LDPE and PET. They are then sold back to plastic manufacturers in the UK and globally, where they will be made into products such as traffic cones, bollards, guttering and fleece jumpers |
| Glass | Recresco, Nottingham and Southampton | Glass bottles and jars |
| Mixed paper | UPM, Shotton Paper, Flintshire | Packaging material such as cardboard boxes |
What happens to items collected elsewhere including recycling banks:
| Textiles | Textile recycling Care, Dorset | Good quality clothing is sent abroad for reuse. Lower quality materials are used as wiping cloths and stuffing for furniture |
| Foil | Simms Metals, Nottingham | It is melted into aluminium and turned into foil and cans |
| Food waste | Eco Sustainable Solutions, Dorset | It is composted under strict temperature controls into soil improver then put on fields to grow sustainable turf |
Garden waste | Eco Sustainable Solutions, Dorset | It is composted and used in horticulture |
| Wood waste | Eco Sustainable Solutions, Dorset | Shredded and separated into various grades for chip board, biomass fuels (energy recovery) and equestrian products |
You can also find out about where materials from our household recycling centres go.
