Where does it all go?

This question is often asked by businesses and residents.

Westminster’s waste service is unrivalled in green credentials. We recycle an ever increasing proportion of the waste stream and recover energy from whatever cannot be recycled.

This map shows the routes waste takes to the local disposal points. 

• South East London Combined Heat and Power (SELCHP)
  
  
  
  Residual waste (the waste that can't or shouldn't be recycled) is delivered under a long term contract to South East London Combined Heat and Power, a waste fired power station in Deptford. Here waste is burned to generate green power for around 50,000 London homes. Burning one bag of waste and recovering the heat provides enough energy for 7 showers. Metals are extracted from the (bottom) ash and the remainder is used as an aggregate in road building.
  
  
• Brent Waste Transfer Station
  
  Brent WTS accepts the majority of recyclable materials and waste electrical items. At the station several smaller loads are bulked up and combined in a large load. From here they get sent to processors and the Materials Recovery Facility.
  
  The station also takes in general waste when SELCHP is closed at night and transfers this back to SELCHP in the morning.
  
  
• MRF for mixed recycling (blue bags and bins)
  
  A Materials Recovery Facility or MRF is used to separate out materials collected mixed for recycling. These are the materials collected through the blue bags as well as larger quantities collected through bins.
  
  A variety of machinery such as rotating drums, wind sifters, magnets and infra red sensors are used to separate out the various materials. These materials are then baled and brought to recyclers such as glass and metal smelters and paper mills.
  
  Please see here for more information. In addition a virtual tour of the MRF is available through this link.

• Source separated recycling
Paper, cardboard and glass are consolidated at Brent WTS into larger loads after which they are off to processors such as Severside, Kemsley,  Berrymans and Days Aggregates. Waste electrical equipment is sent to European Metals Recycling (EMR) and SWEEEP for dismantling.

Site visits

If you want more information or a site visit to see for yourself? Please get in touch with us. In addition why not have a look at the videos to see how waste is collected and disposed of.

• Video 1
• Video 2