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Where recycling goes
What happens to my recycling?
The Suffolk Waste Partnership is committed to providing residents with information on where all their materials are sent for recycling. Materials which have been sorted and baled at the MRF are sent for reprocessing into raw materials in various locations across the UK, Europe and Worldwide, ready to be made into new products. These locations are shown in the following graphs and tables.
The data has been collected from the most recent financial year - 1st April 2024 - 31st March 2025.
Where does my recycling go?
Click through to find out what happens to your recycling.
(Click on the upward facing yellow arrow to return to the material list)
View the infographic of where recycling goes
- Where recycling goes 24-25PDF2.14MB
FAQs
Recycling collected through Suffolk’s kerbside recycling bins is taken to a Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) to be sorted. Items are currently sorted at the MRF in Great Blakenham, which is owned and operated by Biffa and contracted to Suffolk County Council. The MRF is currently undergoing a major redevelopment to accommodate the new materials that are being collected, ie; glass, tetra pak and soft plastic.
At the MRF, Suffolk’s recycling is separated into individual material streams before being sent for further processing. After this initial sort, baled materials are sent to reprocessors to enable them to be made into new products, or further sorting facilities.
See 'Why is some of our recycling exported?' FAQ for an explanation on why it is necessary to recycle some materials outside the UK. Exported materials will go to Environment Agency accredited and licensed processing facilities where they are transformed into ready to use materials e.g. plastic pellets/flakes and are therefore no longer a waste product. This webpage shows the End Destination Register for Suffolk’s home recycling bin waste.
About 76% of material from our recycling bins was recycled last year. The remaining 24% is rejected for a number of reasons: it is the wrong material, it is dirty or contaminated or it is too small to be recycled (items under 4cm). To see what should go in your recycling bin click here.
The most common contaminants are food waste, nappies and textiles:
- Textiles can be recycled at bring banks and Recycling Centres.
- Nappies are not recyclable and need to be placed in your rubbish bin.
- For food waste reduction tips and ideas for meals made from leftovers which will save you money, see the Food Savvy website. We also recommend home composting food waste which can’t be reduced. Food is collected from the kerbside.
Just over 11,000 tonnes of materials were rejected from the MRF due to contamination last year, equivalent to 2000 full loads of recycling (or one in every four collections) costing Suffolk taxpayers over £750,000 every year. Rejected material is sent to the Energy From Waste facility in Great Blakenham.
As with many other modern industries, the recycling industry is global. Many of the manufactured products we use come from overseas, in particular Asia, therefore there is a higher demand for certain types of materials in these countries and they often have a far larger capacity for recycling certain materials than in the UK. Paper and card make up the majority of exported materials. However 100% of metal and plastic collected from Suffolk was recycled in the UK last year. Exporting materials for recycling is still a far better environmental option than not recycling. One of the reasons is because exports are often taken in shipping containers which would otherwise travel back empty on their return journeys.
(Adapted from Recycle Now, 2018)
Recycling conserves resources
When we recycle, used materials are converted back into new products, reducing the need to consume more virgin natural resources. If used materials are not recycled, new products are made by extracting raw material from the Earth, through mining, crude oil extraction and forestry, therefore recycling helps conserve important raw materials, reduces stored carbon release and protects natural habitats for the future.
Recycling saves energy
Using recycled materials in the manufacturing process uses considerably less energy, water and time than that required for producing new products from raw materials – even when comparing all associated energy needs, like transport. A lot more energy is required to extract, refine, transport and process raw materials ready for industry compared with providing industry-ready recycled materials, e.g. reprocessing of aluminium cans in Wales uses 90% less energy than the mining of bauxite in Australia and extrusion of new aluminium.
Recycling helps protect the environment
It reduces the need for extracting, refining and processing raw materials, all of which create substantial air and water pollution. As recycling saves energy, it also reduces greenhouse gas emissions, which helps to tackle climate change. UK recycling is estimated to save more than 18 million tonnes of CO2 a year (2018) – the equivalent to taking 5 million cars off the road.
The big expense with dealing with recycling is the transportation and the sorting of each material. Suffolk Councils incentivise its contractors to sell the recyclable material streams for the best value possible. Material markets depend on the economy, global events, and demand for manufacturing new products from recycling. The value of each material fluctuates, sometimes a material commands a high price, other times, it sells for much less. Even when materials can be sold to generate income, there remains an overall cost due to collection, sorting, processing, and transporting the material.