What happens to the recycling after it's collected?

After the blue top recycling bins have been emptied, all materials are taken to a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) and tipped into a loading area.

The materials are then loaded onto a conveyor belt for sorting.  The MRFs are equipped with sophisticated automatic recognition systems for sorting the items.

Firstly the plastic bottles, then newspapers, magazines, card and paper are removed from the conveyor belt using technology such as air jets. 

Following the automated process the conveyor is monitored manually and manpower is used to remove any non-recyclable items. These are dealt with as refuse, and sent for energy recovery. However, it costs more to remove non-recyclable items at this stage than to collect them as refuse.

Lastly a magnetic separator removes the steel cans from the conveyor leaving only the aluminium cans.

Glass recycling

We cannot collect glass in the blue top bins because it contaminates the rest of the materials. Glass jars and bottles should be taken to a glass recycling bank. There is a map of the glass recycling banks in the Borough.

More information on how glass is recycled is available.

 

For further information please contact the Customer Service Centre on 01329 236100 or email customerservices@fareham.gov.uk