What happens to your waste
Have you ever wondered what happens to your waste and recycling?
Recycling
All of the recyclable materials from Hampshire's kerbside collections (cans, plastic bottles, paper, card, tins and empty aerosols) are sent to one of two Material Recovery Facilities in the county, in Portsmouth and Alton.
The materials are separated using a combination of manual and automatic processes, including magnets, conveyor belts and lasers, before being baled up and sent to private companies for recycling into new products. Learn more with Hampshire recycles.
Recycling
Together, the two facilities are able to handle up to 157,000 tonnes of recyclables every year.
Rubbish
Most of the non-recyclable waste collected from homes in Hampshire is taken to one of three Energy Recovery Facilities located in Marchwood, Chineham and Portsmouth.
These facilities safely incinerate the waste and use the heat from this process to create steam, in turn generating electricity which is fed to the National Grid.
Rubbish
Each year these facilities create the same amount of electricity to power 53,000 homes.
Garden waste
All the green garden waste collected at Hampshire's recycling centres, as well as that from any local collections, is taken to one of two composting sites in the county, Herriard near Basingstoke and Chilbolton near Stockbridge.
The green waste is composted in long heaps called windrows for 20 weeks and turned so it breaks down evenly. The finished product is 'Pro-Grow', a high quality soil conditioner that is available to buy at every recycling centre.
Garden waste
Together, the two sites process over 75,000 tonnes of compost material every year.
Landfill
There is now only one landfill site open in Hampshire for disposing of household waste.
The only household waste currently landfilled is bulky items delivered to recycling centres. We are working to address this and move as close to zero landfill as we can.
Hampshire County Council is also responsible for 11 closed former landfill sites, and has a duty to ensure that they are returned to nature as best as possible.
Landfill
Hampshire sends less than 5% of its household waste to landfill.