What happens next to waste and recycling

All mixed food and garden waste collected home is processed locally at the Wastewise In-Vessel Composting (IVC) facility in Willoughby, East Yorkshire. To ensure the waste is turned into high-quality, safe compost, it undergoes a rigorous multi-stage journey:

• Step 1: Preparation – Waste is received at the reception hall where it is shredded and thoroughly mixed.
• Step 2: Sanitisation (5–10 Days) – The mix is placed into enclosed, forced-aerated tunnels. This controlled environment reaches high temperatures to ensure the compost is fully sanitised and free of any pathogens.
• Step 3: Maturation (5 Weeks) – The compost is moved to an outdoor aerated pad to stabilise and mature.
• Step 4: Grading – Finally, the matured compost is screened and graded into different high-quality soil conditioners and products.

By composting food and garden waste, residents are helping to create a “circular economy”. The end products are often used in local agriculture and landscaping, putting nutrients back into the soil rather than sending waste to incineration.

Dry mixed recycling is taken to the state-of-the-art H W Martin Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) in Leeds. This facility is specifically designed to handle “commingled” waste, using advanced mechanical and optical technology to separate paper, card, plastic, glass, and metals.

1. Initial Inspection: The material is loaded onto a conveyor where an initial manual pick removes large contaminants (such as plastic bags) to protect the machinery.
2. Sizing and Screening: Large trommels (rotating drums) and vibrating screens separate the waste by size and weight—separating heavy glass from light paper and cardboard.
3. High-Tech Sorting:
   • Magnets & Eddy Currents: Powerful magnets extract steel cans, while ‘Eddy Current’ separators use a magnetic field to repel aluminium cans into a separate collection area.
   • Optical Sensors: Near-infrared lasers scan the moving belt, identifying different types of plastic and paper. Bursts of compressed air then “fire” the items into the correct bins with incredible speed and accuracy.
4. Quality Control: A final manual check ensures the separated streams are pure before they are baled.
5. Closing the Loop: The materials are compressed into large bales and sent to specialist re-processors to be turned back into new bottles, jars, and packaging.

General waste is treated as a resource and processed at Transwaste (Melton) and Newlincs Development Ltd (Stallingborough). Rather than sending this material to landfill, it is processed at specialized facilities to create Energy from Waste (EfW) or Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF).

1. Recovery of Recyclables: Even in the general waste stream, advanced mechanical sorting is used to pull out any remaining metals or heavy aggregates that can still be recycled.
2. Shredding and Processing: The remaining non-recyclable material is shredded to create a uniform fuel.
3. Energy Generation:
   • At Stallingborough: The waste is thermally treated under strictly controlled conditions. The heat produced creates steam, which powers turbines to generate electricity for the National Grid.
   • At Melton: The material is processed into fuel blocks or “flock” that can be used by industry (like cement kilns) as a greener alternative to fossil fuels.

Materials in the red lidded bin are sorted and then separated into the individual waste streams below.

Plastics

Plastics are sorted by colour and type, and contaminants like labels are removed. The plastic is granulated, heated and moulded into another product. The different types of plastics recycled in North Lincolnshire can return as fizzy drink, shampoo or detergent bottles, carpet fibres, drain pipes, clothing, fleece jackets, traffic cones and recycling boxes.

Plastics go to J&B Recycling, Windermere Road, MRF Hartlepool, TS25 1NS.

Cardboard

In a similar way to the newspaper process, cardboard is mixed with water (pulped) and contaminants are removed. It is pressed into sheets and dried and recycled into new boxes, packaging or insulation.

Cardboard goes to J&B Recycling, Windermere Road, MRF Hartlepool, TS25 1NS.

Cartons

Cartons are fed into a pulper containing water, 20 minutes later the fibres have separated from the polymers and aluminium (polyAl). The pulped cartons have now created a fibre soup.

This soup is pumped into a storage tank ready to be made into core board which can then make tubes and cores. The polyAl is pumped into a separate area for further washing which is then baled ready for recycling and reuse.

Cartons go to J&B Recycling, Windermere Road, MRF Hartlepool, TS25 1NS

Aluminium cans

Cans are flattened and shredded into small pieces. Hot air removes any decoration and the shreds are melted in a furnace. The molten metal flows into moulds to form ingots.

Products include new cans, window frames, foil or car parts.

Aluminium cans got to J&B Recycling, Windermere Road, MRF Hartlepool, TS25 1NS

Steel, tin cans and aerosols

Cans, tins and aerosols are melted down in a furnace with other grades of scrap metal and liquid iron and turned into new steel.

Products include new cans, car parts, bicycles and paper clips.

Steel Cans

Steel cans go to J&B Recycling, Windermere Road, MRF Hartlepool, TS25 1NS

Foil goes to Novelis Warrington, Thelwall Lane, Warrington, Cheshire WA4 1NN.

Paper

Paper is mixed with warm water and chemicals to turn it into pulp. Ink and materials such as paper clips are removed from the pulp. The paper is pressed to remove water and to form a strong interlocked mat.  It is then ironed out through big tubes and wound into large rolls.

The rolls of recycled paper are cut and wrapped before being cut into size. Paper from your blue box is turned back into new newspapers in just seven days from collection.

Paper goes to Palm Recycling, Saddlebow Industrial Estate, Popular Ave, Kings Lynn, Norfolk, PE34 3AL.

Glass

Labels, metals and other contamination are removed. The glass is crushed into small pieces to form cullet which is mixed with sand, soda ash and limestone. This is put into a furnace and melted at 1,500 degrees centigrade. The hot glass can then be shaped into moulds and cooled.

Products include new bottles and jars, tiles, jewellery and fibreglass insulation.

Mixed glass bottles and jars go to Sibelco Green Solutions UK Limited, Salmon Pastures Waste Transfer Station, Attercliffe Road, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S4 7WT

• Household plastic packaging
  • J&B Recycling, Windermere Road, MRF Hartlepool, TS25 1NS
• Bicycles
  • Ongo/Crosby Employment Agency 1-3 Laneham Street, Scunthorpe DN15 6LJ
  • HM Prison – Hedon Road, Hull HU9 5LS
• Carton
  •  J&B Recycling, Windermere Road, MRF Hartlepool, TS25 1NS
• Cooking oil
  • Living Fuels, Freedom Farm, Cowles Drove, Hockwold, Thetford, Norfolk, IP26 4JQ
• Discs
  • To be put into the general waste skips at Household Recycling Centres.
• Mixed glass bottles and jars
  • Sibelco Green Solutions UK Limited, Salmon Pastures Waste Transfer Station, Attercliffe Road, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S4 7WT
  • Sibelco Green Solutions UK Limited, Newhouse Glass Recycling Facility, Mossband Farm, Motherwell Road, Newhouse, North Lanarkshire, ML1 5ST
• Mixed textiles and clothes
  • JMP Wilcox & Co Ltd, Beldray Road, Bilston, WV14 7NH
• Reuse items
  • Lindsey Lodge Hospice, 14 Colltex, Colne Valley Business Park, Linthwaite, Huddersfield. HD7 5QG WF4 5ER
  • British Heart Foundation, Eater London House, 180 Hampstead Road, London, NW1 7AW
  • Oxfam Waste Saver, Unit 4,5 and 6 Ringway Industrial Centre, Beck Road, Huddersfield, HD1 5DG
• Spectacles
  • Vison Aid 12 The Bell Centre, Newton Road, Crawley, West Sussex
• Batteries
  • Mercury Recycling Ltd, Mercury House, 17 Commerce Road, Trafford Park, Manchester, M17 1HW
• Fluorescent tubes
  • Balcan Engineering Ltd, Boston Road Industrial Estate, Banovallum Gardens, Horncastle LN9 6JR
• Fridges and freezers
  • o Unimetals, Newport Fridge Plant, North Side, Alexandra Dock, Newport, Gwent, NP20 2WE
• Large appliances
  • o Unimetals, Nottingham, Harrimans Lane, Dunkirk, Nottingham, NG7 2SD
• Low energy bulbs
  • Balcan Engineering Ltd, Boston Road Industrial Estate, Banovallum Gardens, Horncastle LN9 6JR
• Printer cartridges
  • Britaniacrest Recycling Ltd, 24-26 Reigate Road, Hookwood, Horley, Surrey RH6 0HJ
• Small appliances
  • o Unimetals, Nottingham, Harrimans Lane, Dunkirk, Nottingham, NG7 2SD
• TVs and monitors
  • Electrical Waste Recycling Group Ltd, School Lane, Kirkheaton, Huddersfield HD5 0JS
• Cardboard
  • Ellgia, Pit Bottom, Winterton Road, Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, DN15 0DH
• Paper
  • Palm Recycling, Saddlebow Industrial Estate, Popular Ave, Kings Lynn, Norfolk, PE34 3AL
• Mixed glass, bottles and jars
  • Sibelco Green Solutions UK Limited, Salmon Pastures Waste Transfer Station, Attercliffe Road, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S4 7WT
• Garden waste
  • Down To Earth, Old Cement Works, Gainsthorpe Road East, Kirton In Lindsey, Gainsborough, Lincolnshire
• Hand tools
  • TWAM 2 Bailey Close, Hadleigh Road Ind Est, Ipswich, Suffolk IP2 0UD
  • HM Prison, Hedon Road, Hull HU9 5LS
• Hardcore and rubble
  • Ellgia, Pit Bottom, Winterton Road, Scunthorpe, DN15 0DH
• Plasterboard
  • Down to Earth, Gainsthorpe Road, Kirton in Lindsey DN21 4JH
• Soil
  • Ellgia, Pit Bottom, Winterton Road, Scunthorpe, DN15 0DH
• Wood and timber
  • Down to Earth, Gainsthorpe Road East, Kirton in Lindsey, DN21 4JH
  • Ellgia, Winterton Road, Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, DN15 0DH
• Aluminium cans
  • Tandom Metallurgical Group Limited, Third Avenue, Radnor Park Industrial Estate, Congleton, Cheshire, CW12 4XE
• Foil
  • Novelis Warrington, Thelwall Lane, Warrington, Cheshire WA4 1NN
• Scrap metal
  • LAS Metals, Midland Road, Scunthorpe DN16 1DQ
• Steel cans
  • Humberside Reclamation Limited, Lockwood Street, Hull, HU2 0HJ
  • Morris & Co (Handlers) Limited, J3 Business Park, Carr Hill, Doncaster, DN4 8DE
  • Morris & Co (Handlers) Limited, Bankwood Lane, New Rossington, Doncaster, DN11 0PS
  • Ronald Hull Jnr Ltd, Mangham Works, Rotherham, S62 6EF
  • Ward Recycling Ltd, Land at Grifton Road, Ilkeston, Derbyshire, DE11 8DG
• Car batteries
  • LAS Metals, Midland Road, Scunthorpe DN16 1DQ
• Tyres
  • Envirotyre UK Ltd Reed Point, Sutterton, Boston PE20 2EP
• Used engine oil
  • LWOL Limited, Unit 6A, Whisby Way Ind Est, Whisby Road, Lincoln, LN6 3LQ
• Asbestos
  • Viridor Erin Landfill, Markham Lane, Chesterfield S44 5HS
• Gas bottles
  • Recovercyl, 1 Stanley Road, Bradford, BD2 1AS
  • LAS Metals, Midland Road, Scunthorpe, DN16 1DQ
  • Gas Mariner GAS services, 20 Kendale Road, off Grange Lane North, Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, DN16 1DT
• Household and garden chemicals
  • Veolia, Norwood Recycling Centre, Rotherham Road, Killamarsh, Sheffield, S21 2DR

General and bagged waste

• General waste sent for energy recovery
  • NEWLINCS Integrated Waste Management Facility. South Marsh Road, Stallingborough, NE Lincs, DN41 8BZ

Confidential paper collection

Confidential waste goes to Restore Datashred, Unit 1, Data Drive, South Kirkby Business Park, Pontefract, WF9 3FD.

Clinical waste collections

• Clinical waste goes to SRCL, Knostrop Treatment Works, Knowsthorpe Lane, Leeds, Yorkshire, LS9 0PJ