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Bank holiday collections for recycling and waste

All recycling and waste collections take place as normal on bank holidays, with the exception of Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day.

Close Bank holiday collections for recycling and waste

06/06/12 00:00:00

The recycling process

A big thank you for helping us to recycle over 27,475 tonnes last year in Herefordshire. It is equivalent to the weight of 43,960 original Mini Cooper cars. This is brilliant!

We collect your recycling using wheeled bins. Where wheeled bins are not appropriate, recycling is collected using clear plastic sacks. 

We take your recycling to a transfer site in Hereford where it is loaded into larger containers and transported to our state of the art material recovery facility in Worcestershire - EnviroSort.

For further information about what your recycling becomes, see the recycling collection guide (PDF document). 

How is my recycling sorted?

  1. The recycling delivered to EnviroSort is loaded onto conveyors where it is first checked by hand to remove anything which shouldn't be there
  2. A vibrating machine then separates the flat things, like paper and card, from the rest of the recycling
  3. The paper and card is then further sorted before being baled
  4. The cans, plastics and glass bottles then pass under a magnet which removes the steel cans and tins
  5. Plastic bottles, pots, trays and tubs are separated using special scanners
  6. Aluminium cans are removed using eddy current separators
  7. Finally, the remaining glass jars and bottles drop off the end into a large container

Where does my recycling go and what does it become?

We send 96 per cent of your recycling to reprocessors in the UK; the rest goes to mainland Europe.

Markets for recyclables are constantly changing. For up-to-date details of where your recycling goes visit EnviroSort.

  • Paper - becomes newspapers
  • Cardboard - is made into new cardboard packaging
  • Glass - is made into new bottles and jars, or it is used in making new roads
  • Cans - are made into new cans, parts for cars, aeroplanes and lots of other new metal items
  • Cartons - we separate the paper and use it to make new paper products. We either further separate the plastic parts or use it as a fuel to power the mill
  • Plastics - are made into new packaging, fleece clothing, pipes, outdoor furniture and lots of other plastic items

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