Where does your recycled rubbish go? (From Halesowen News)

Where does your recycled rubbish go?

7:00am Saturday 4th July 2009

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Fear that your recycling travels by ship to the Far East and then dies a toxic death somewhere in China? With new figures showing that 90% of the UK's recycling is actually done in the UK, we follow the contents of our own green box to see just where they go - and what they turn into.

Fact or myth? Most of our recycling waste, which you meticulously separate before it's picked up by the council, ends up being sent to Shanghai and sold back to us as televisions and stationery.

It's a popular theory, and indeed some of our waste does go to China.

However, more than 90% of the glass bottles, cans, cardboard, paper and plastics collected in our green boxes are recycled here in Britain.

But with so many different recycling rules for so many different local authorities, just where does it all go? I followed the trail of my rubbish to find out.

On a journey My council, Hackney in London, is one of the most forward thinking when it comes to green issues. As a result, my recycling box can take anything from car batteries and old clothing to milk bottles and beer cans.

And what ends up where depends on what facilities are available both locally and nationally.

Technically, recycling boxes either go to MRFs (Materials Recovery Facilities - lovingly called 'Merfs' by those in the know) or to a Waste Transfer Station.

MRFs take whole loads of recycling from bins and flats. The loads are then separated by machine into different sections - aluminium, cans, glass and so on - and then sent to respective facilities nationwide which deal with that particular recyclable.

Waste Transfer Stations, on the other hand, are big loading docks whereby waste that has already been separated - for example by the guys who work on the recycling trucks - is sent to places all over the country and recycled.

As my recycling is separated by the guys who pick it up every Friday, the contents of my green box go to a station in North London.

After doing a little research at my local recycling bureau, I discover that my tins and cans go to Wales, my paper to Kent, my glass bottles to Harlow - and my yellow pages to Croydon, where they are turned into animal bedding.

Intriguing stuff. But after discovering that my plastic bottles - nicely cleaned and lovingly dropped into my green box - end up in Merseyside, where they are turned into park benches, drain pipes and fencing, I get a little annoyed.

Closing the loop That's because the UK's first mixed plastic recycling plant has opened up just 14 miles from my home, and it's the only place in Britain that recycles plastic bottles back into other food and drinks containers - not park benches.

East London's Dagenham-based Closed Loop Recycling takes 20% of the UK's plastic bottles, a staggering 35,000 tonnes that, to date, have turned into things like M&S salad containers, which boast 50% recycled plastic, or Coca-Cola bottles, which have 25% recycled content.

"This plant just shows that the UK is undergoing a recycling revolution," says Closed Loop's co-founder Chris Dow, as he gives me a tour of the £15 million facility.

"Each plastic bottle that we recycle here reduces the bottle's footprint by 25%. And when you think that people are running around trying to cut their CO2 by one or two percent, a 25% reduction is pretty damn significant."

Soon celebrating its first anniversary, the plant has been a major success, all because it proves that resources can be used again and again, Dow says.

"What we're doing now wasn't possible two years ago," explains the native Australian. "That's because the technology and the thinking has changed - and now we're recycling more than ever."

The UK recycled only 3% of its plastic bottles in 2001, a figure that has jumped to 34% today. And while the press continues to regale Brits for not recycling enough, Dow is nothing but impressed with how quickly we've cottoned onto the idea.

"I think we ought to pat British consumers on the back, because what they've shown they can do in the past few years is just incredible," he says.

"In fact, I challenge anywhere else in the world to beat those recycling rates in that same amount of time."

But it hasn't all been easy, Dow says. Having suffered setbacks in October last year, when the price of recycled plastics dropped from £200 to £20 per tonne, Dow admits that proving recycling could work became more of an issue that it should have done.

"We didn't start recycling so we could get £100 per tonne," he explains. "We started recycling for the environmental benefits of recycling, which won't stop no matter how much money we earn for it."

That said, Dow says that China is more of a threat than he'd like - all because they set the global price for his industry.

"The truth is that a lot of plastic does end up in China - they're my competitor," he says. "Whatever China decide to pay for plastic, I have to pay to get it.

"The problem is that if the price drops, it discourages councils, because they don't see recycling as price effective, and it consequently can reduce the recycling rate."

Liz Goodwin, CEO of WRAP, which helps individuals, businesses and local authorities to reduce waste and recycle more, agrees that encouraging councils to comply can be difficult.

There's no national standard as to what should, or shouldn't, be thrown in the green box.

"We've seen our recycling rates increase massively from just 17% five years ago to 34% today," she explains.

"But we have 400 local authorities across the UK and they're all making their own decisions as to what should be recycled and what shouldn't."

Dow calls this reality a "recycling nightmare".

Goodwin hopes for a more standardised approach to recycling that will call for half a dozen possibilities instead of 400.

"But we won't ever be able to have the same collection scheme all over the country, because there just isn't a one-sized solution to the needs of the whole population."

However, as more and more companies buy recycled plastic, and with a second Closed Loop recycling facility to be built in Merseyside by this time next year, UK consumers can expect to see their old soft-drink bottles turned into their food and drinks containers.

So in June next year, I hope to see my Evian bottle go from my kerb to Merseyside - not to be turned into a park bench, but to be reused as an M&S salad container.

And that is another journey that will make my green box proud.

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