Recyclable items from your blue bins and recycling points

Recycling collected from your blue bins is taken to the Thalia Waste Management centre near Waterbeach.

It is put through a variety of systems and processes to make sure as little as possible gets wasted. A variety of magnets, currents, size-sorting equipment and conveyor belts separate the different materials. They are then packed up and sold to reprocessors who melt, pulp or crush them to make new products.

Our contract with Thalia specifies that we should give preference to UK markets where possible. In 2023/24, we sent 82% of the recyclable material that we collected to reprocessors in the UK. For plastics, this figure was 100% with no plastic leaving the UK.

The remaining 18% of material is large cardboard and some mixed paper, which we export. It is tracked in accordance with government guidance and recorded on the national Waste Data Flow website. It is only sent to sites that have a permit to recycle it.

We will continue to follow the same strict processes when we start working with our new contractor in March 2025. We will be working to ensure the same high standards and accountability for our recycling material.

Non-recyclable items that are put into the bins are removed during sorting. They are either sent to landfill at Waterbeach or used as fuel to run cement kilns in Lincolnshire.

Paper and cardboard are sorted into different grades and sent to mills to be pulped and made into new paper and card products.

Glass can be melted and used to make new bottles if it is unbroken when it reaches the Amey centre. The rest is crushed and used as aggregate in construction projects, or as filtrates in filter beds.

Cans are separated into aluminium and steel. Then they are melted by processors to form ingots, which are sold to manufacturers who can make anything from new drinks cans to aeroplanes.

Plastic bottles, pots, tubs, trays and bags are sorted to separate the different polymer types. They are then shredded and cleaned, then melted into pellets. These are sold to manufacturers to make new plastic packaging, garden furniture and even fleece jackets.

Drinks cartons are pulped and the paper parts are used to make strong cardboard cores for industrial applications, like factory rolls of paper, plastic film or yarn.

Textiles from recycling points are sorted and reused, raising money for the charities that provide the bins. Most are reused in the UK, but some are sent to Africa or Poland.

Food and garden waste from your green bins

Garden and food waste is put through an intensive fast-composting process, and the resulting soil conditioner is sold for local agriculture. You can collect some free of charge from Thalia Waste Management, Waterbeach, to use on your garden.

Non-recyclable rubbish from your black bins

Black bin waste which is not recyclable is taken to the Thalia waste-management centre near Waterbeach. Find out more information on the Cambridgeshire County Council website.

Recycling and waste statistics

We measure the amount of household rubbish and recycling we collect by weight.

Weight of recycling and waste collected

Between April 2023 and March 2024 we collected:

• 52,505 tonnes of general waste (black bins) from 129,560 households – an average of 405kg per household.
• 22,498 tonnes of recycling (blue bins) from 129,560 households – an average of 174kg per household.
• 30,005 tonnes of garden and food waste (green bins) from 113,742 households – an average of 264kg per household.

Recycling rate

The recycling rate shows how much you put into your blue and green bins, as a percentage of the total weight of recycling and rubbish we empty from all bins.

Bins emptied on time

The table below shows the percentage of bins that we emptied on their scheduled day. As well as the recycling rate, we use this to measure the performance of our waste service.