What Happens to Your Waste After We Collect It?
Every load we collect goes to a licensed waste transfer station, where it's sorted: usable items are routed for reuse, recyclable materials are separated for recycling, much of the rest becomes refuse-derived fuel — and landfill is the last resort, not the default.
First stop: the licensed transfer station
Nothing we collect goes straight to a hole in the ground. Loads are taken to licensed waste transfer stations — regulated sorting facilities where mixed waste is tipped, picked over and separated into material streams. Wood, metal, cardboard, hard plastics, green waste and inert material like rubble each go their own way from there.
The paper trail matters as much as the physical journey: every collection is documented with a waste transfer note under our carrier licence (CBDU464597), so there's a record of what was collected and where it went. That's your duty-of-care protection as well as ours.
Reuse comes before recycling
The best outcome for a sofa isn't being shredded — it's being sat on. Furniture and appliances in usable condition are routed for reuse where a route exists, because reuse beats recycling in both environmental terms and plain common sense. It's also why telling us something still works is genuinely useful when you book.
What gets recycled — and into what
Metal is the star recycler: white goods, bed frames and radiators are stripped and smelted into new steel and aluminium almost indefinitely. Clean wood becomes chipboard and biomass fuel; cardboard goes back into packaging; garden waste is composted into soil products; rubble and hardcore are crushed into aggregate for construction. Fridges and freezers take a specialist detour first — their refrigerant gases must be safely extracted at licensed facilities before the metal and plastic are recovered, which is why they're priced differently.
Energy recovery: the step before landfill
Mixed residual waste that can't be economically separated increasingly avoids landfill anyway — it's processed into refuse-derived fuel and burned for energy at recovery facilities. It's not as good as recycling, but it's a long way better than burial, and it's where much of the UK's non-recyclable household waste now ends up.
Why this matters when choosing a carrier
A licensed carrier pays transfer stations to take waste and can prove where every load went. An unlicensed one has every incentive to dump it in a lay-by — and when fly-tipped waste is traced back, the householder who paid for the 'cheap collection' can be the one fined. Checking a carrier's registration takes thirty seconds on the public register and is the single best thing you can do for where your waste ends up.
Quick answers
How much of a typical load avoids landfill?
It varies by load, but between reuse, material recycling and energy recovery, the large majority of a typical mixed household load is diverted from landfill — dense inert waste like rubble is almost entirely recycled into aggregate.
Can I ask for proof of where my waste went?
Yes — you'll get a waste transfer note for the load, and we're happy to tell you which licensed facility received it.
Do you sort the waste, or does the facility?
Both. Obvious reuse items and separated materials are handled at collection; the fine sorting into material streams happens at the licensed transfer station.
Rather just have it collected?
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