We collect your household recycling every two weeks. You can also take it to any of our 14 Household Waste and Recycling Centres (HWRC).
Everything we collect is sent to recycling companies here in the UK. They recycle 99% of the material we send them into useful new products.
How to sort your recycling
Please sort your recycling into the coloured bags and black box before you put it out for us to collect. If you’re taking your recycling to a HWRC, sort it at home and place it in the correct container when you arrive.
Find out what goes in each recycling bag and box
We take your paper, glass, textiles, cardboard and plastic and metal packaging to one of our Materials Recycling Facilities in Bodmin or Pool.
There, we sort it even more, separating glass from textiles and plastics from metals. We then bale up the materials and send them to UK recycling companies.
Why sorting at home matters
Sorting your recycling at home makes it easier to recycle it.
Putting cardboard and paper in one bin with plastic and metal packaging that may have had food in it can make the cardboard and paper unrecyclable.
Your home sorting keeps the recycling cleaner and this means we can send it to trusted UK-based recycling companies instead of shipping it abroad.
Want to see it in action?
Suez runs tours of the Bodmin recycling facility for schools, community groups, and universities students. You’ll see how recycling is sorted and baled up close.
Book a Bodmin Recycling Facility tour
You can find out where each material goes using the table below.
Material | Recycling or reuse destination | End use |
Paper | Norfolk and Kent | Paper is reprocessed into 100% recycled paper for newsprint and packaging. |
Cardboard | Norfolk and Kent | Cardboard is sorted and reprocessed into new cardboard. |
Steel cans | Swansea and Avon | Steel cans are recycled into many different steel products including cars, bridges and cans. |
Aluminium cans and foil | Swansea and Wiltshire | Aluminium is melted and turned into ingots which are then used to make many different products from foil trays to aeroplanes. |
Plastic bottles, pots, tubs and trays | West Midlands, Kent, Derbyshire, Lancashire | Plastic is sorted, shredded, melted and used to make many products like garden furniture, refuse bags and drainage pipes. |
Plastic bags and wrapping | The Midlands | Turned into new materials like bin bags, carrier bags, construction materials and outdoor furniture. |
Cartons | Halifax | Cartons are pulped, cleaned and the layers of different materials are separated. The fibres are reprocessed to make coreboard. |
Glass bottles and jars | Falmouth Docks, Monmouthshire and Southampton | Glass is turned back into glass bottles. |
Clothes and textiles | West Midlands | Textiles are collected for reuse or recycling. |
Batteries (household and car) | Birmingham | Useful materials are recovered from batteries. |
Bric-a-brac | Par and sites with Reuse | Bric-a-brac is sold for reuse at our Kernow Reuse Shops. |
Books | Sites with Kernow Reuse | Books are sold for reuse at our Kernow Reuse Shops. |
Cooking oil | Walsall | Cooking oil is recovered for green energy. |
Energy saving light bulbs and florescent tubes | Manchester | Energy saving lightbulbs are taken apart. The components are separated and recovered for recycling or reuse in a variety of industries. |
Engine oil | Exeter | Engine oil is recovered, cleaned and resold for its original use. |
Flat glass UPVC | Redruth | Flat glass UPVC is turned into recycled glass, stained windows and countertops. |
Fridges and freezers | Telford | CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) are removed. Plastic and foam are separated for use in manufacturing. |
Garden waste | Roche and Plymouth | Garden waste is recycled and turned into compost and chipboard. |
Gas bottles | Doncaster | Gas bottles are collected and repatriated to the company of origin. |
Metal | Par | Metal is separated into the different types and then sent for recycling. |
Paints | Sites with Kernow Reuse | Paint is either reused, or the solvent is extracted. |
Plasterboard | Bristol | Plasterboard is recycled for use in construction. |
Rigid plastics | Baled at Pool and Bodmin MRFs | Rigid plastics are recycled for plastic pots and pipes. |
Rubble | Scorrier and Plymouth | Rubble is reused as an aggregate for construction. |
Small electrical equipment | Par | Metals, plastics, glass, batteries and circuit boards are separated and recycled or reused in manufacturing. |
TVs/Monitors | Wales | Metals, plastics, glass, batteries and circuit boards are separated and recycled or reused in manufacturing. |
Tyres | Par | Tyres are shredded into rubber chips suitable for a variety of applications and use in areas such as play areas, pathways, gardens and equestrian surfaces. |
Wetsuits | Newquay | Wetsuits are prepared for reuse or recycled. |
Wood | Devon, Talbot and Newport | Wood is processed for biomass. |
The places and re-processors we send your recycling to do change from time to time.
We don’t limit the amount of recycling households can put out for us to collect each fortnight.
If you need extra or replacement recycling bags, boxes or outdoor food waste caddies, you can order them using the link below.