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The recycling process: transporting your recycling

A Lewisham recycling truckWe collect your recycling material every week and take it to the waste transfer station at New Cross, where it is weighed.

We then transport it to the Materials Recycling Facility (MRF), in Thamesmead in South East London.

Your recycling material goes straight from our trucks into a large reception area at the MRF.

What happens at the MRF

The MRF is a huge building, like a warehouse, with lots of hi-tech equipment.

The machines separate and sort the mixed recycling material into bales of one type of material each. These bales are ready for recycling by other parties.

The first part of the process - bag splitting

The bag splitter machineAn operator drives a loading shovel and loads the mixed material into a bag splitter. This rips open bags and sends  mixed recycling material off to other machines.

Each piece of equipment removes a particular type of material for recycling.

Next stage: separating paper from containers.

Contact us
Environment and community development
Tel: 020 8314 2245
Recycling
Tel: 020 8314 7171