Where does the recycling go?
Paper
Glass
Cans
Food waste, cardboard and garden waste
Textiles
Paper
Once it is collected from your home and from the recycling banks it gets transported to a paper mill in Belgium and subsequently transformed into newsprint paper.
Glass
Once it is collected from the district it is transported to Nottingham, where some is used for road aggregate and some is used to make new glass bottles.
Cans
Once collected they go to Essex where aluminium is separated from steel. Aluminium is then sold to a company which produces mainly cans. Steel is sold to various companies, and the end use includes building work.
Food waste, cardboard and garden waste
Once collected from North Herts households it goes to a local farm outside Baldock where it is composted and will then be distributed to garden centres across the district in the form of Ace of Herts Compost.
Textiles
These are collected by different charities across the district. The use given to the collected products will depend on their quality:
- If in good condition they will be sold at local charity shops.
- If the quality is acceptable but not so good for our internal market it gets exported to Developing Countries.
- If the product is beyond its useful life it is recycled into rags, to be used either as cleaning cloths in factories or as filling by certain industries such as the car industry
