All the products leave the site by road (as the destinations are many and varied) with newspapers, pamphlets and glass going loose in bulkers and with the other materials being baled and transported by curtain-sided vehicles.
The material, particularly the plastics, can be recycled into many different products – for example, paper is made into newspapers, glass bottles and jars are crushed into fine sand for use in paving and plastic bottles can be made into planter pots. In some cases the material is remade into the same product – steel cans become cans once again!
Garden Waste delivered by residents to the household waste and recycling centres is sent for composting at an In-vessel Composting (IVC) facility. The green waste material is converted into a range of horticultural, landscape and agricultural products in an enclosed environment, with accurate temperature control and monitoring, thus providing the optimum controlled conditions for organic waste to be composted.
Detritus waste is wet waste collected by mechanical street sweepers and gully cleansing vehicles. Detritus is made up of water, grit, stones, sand, soil, organic waste and litter. This waste is sent off to a specialist re-processor and 74% of it is currently recycled. The water is cleaned and reused, the grit and stones are used as an aggregate material and the clean litter (mostly cans and plastic) is recycled.
WRWA currently provides a Household Waste and Recycling Centre (HWRC) at its Smugglers Way Transfer Station where local people can dispose of or, preferably, recycle their own waste or leave items for reuse. Lambeth Council also provides its own, additional, Reuse and Recycling Centre for its residents. The HWRC at Cringle Dock was closed to residents dropping off waste and recyclables in cars in September 2012, but the site remains open for the receipt of borough and trade waste and to residents using vans.
WRWA completely upgraded and redesigned the Smugglers Way HWRC in 2012. The facility is based on a split-level concept, so that the public is physically separated from the operational activities. This layout provides greater flexibility to users when they deposit material and has reduced waiting times. This, combined with a