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What happens to your recycling

This page tells you where your recycling ends up and what it is made into after we have collected it.

Mixed paper, card and cardboard

The mixed paper, card and cardboard collected from the blue recycling bags are hand sorted into the collection vehicle and taken back to our depot in Hurst Green. They are bailed together and then transported to Eversley in Hampshire where they are recycled back into card and cardboard products.

Glass bottles and jars

The glass bottles and jars collected from the green boxes and recycling bank sites are taken back to our depot in Hurst Green. They are then transported to be recycled by a company called Viridor (This link will open in a new window). All glass is recycled back into new bottles or jars, or sometimes into aggregates for the construction industry.

Food and drinks cans

The cans and tins collected from the green boxes and recycling bank sites are taken back to our depot in Hurst Green. They are bailed together and then transported to one of AMG Resources Ltd's (This link will open in a new window) sites across the country. The cans are separated into steel and aluminium and then recycled into various items from more cans to parts for new cars.

Plastic drinks bottles

Plastic drinks bottles collected from the blue recycling bags are hand sorted into the collection vehicle and taken back to our depot in Hurst Green. They are bailed and then transported to J & A Youngs (This link will open in a new window) in Leicester to be recycled into other plastic products.

Garden waste

Garden waste collected from the brown wheeled bins is taken straight to KPS Composting Ltd (This link will open in a new window) in Pease Pottage, West Sussex. They supply compost to local grounds maintenance contractors including gardeners, farmers, landscapers and horticulturists.

Newspapers and magazines

Newspapers and magazines collected from the large blue Aylesford paper banks at our recycling bank sites are taken directly to Aylesford Newsprint Ltd's (This link will open in a new window) paper mill in Kent. They recycle the newspaper and magazines back into newsprint ready for the press to use again.

Clothes, shoes and textiles

Clothes, shoes and textiles collected from the green banks at our recycling bank sites are emptied by D & M Recycling (This link will open in a new window). They are based in Croydon and have been working with Tandridge for almost twenty years. Once roughly sorted at this depot they are further graded at sites across the country, mainly in Nottingham and Leicester. They are then sent to the appropriate reuse or recycling.

Mixed paper and cardboard

Mixed paper and cardboard collected from the large blue banks at our recycling bank sites are emptied by Palm Recycling (This link will open in a new window) are then sorted and separated into two material streams. The recycled cardboard goes on to become new cardboard packaging products and the paper heads to Palm’s state-of-the-art mill in Kings Lynn to be reprocessed into fresh newsprint.

Paper based food and drinks cartons

Paper based food and drinks cartons collected from the wheeled bins at five of our recycling bank sites are emptied by Recresco. They store the cartons at regional hubs until there is enough material to make up a full truck load. Once they have enough it is transported to a paper mill in Northern Europe to be recycled into a host of products including envelopes, plasterboard liner, paper carrier bags, broom handles, roof tiles and even garden furniture.

Tetra Pak (This link will open in a new window) who organized this collection service say that this is the best available way for the UK to recycle cartons at present. However, Tetra Pak and the rest of the carton industry under the Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment UK are working with other paper mills and partners in the UK to recycle cartons closer to home.

Find out about our recycling record.

 

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