How Household Recycling Is Sorted
Household recycling is a crucial process that ensures the responsible disposal and re-use of materials, reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill and conserving valuable resources. For clearance companies like We Clear Everything, understanding how household recycling is sorted is essential to providing an efficient, environmentally friendly service. The journey of household recyclables from collection to their transformation into new products involves several stages, each carefully designed to maximise recovery and minimise contamination.
When household recycling is collected—whether from individual homes, flats, or after a property clearance—the materials are typically mixed together in a single bin or bag. These mixed recyclables are transported by local councils or private clearance companies to a specialised facility known as a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF). The MRF is where the real sorting magic begins.
Upon arrival at the MRF, the recycling is first tipped onto a large conveyor belt. The initial step is manual sorting, where trained workers remove any non-recyclable items or contaminants that could damage the machinery or reduce the quality of the sorted recyclables. Items such as plastic bags, textiles, electrical goods, and food waste are common contaminants that must be removed at this stage. Clearance companies like We Clear Everything play a vital role here by pre-sorting and minimising contamination before the materials even reach the facility.
After manual sorting, the materials move through a series of mechanical and automated processes. The first of these is usually a trommel—a large rotating drum with holes of varying sizes. This machine separates materials by size, allowing smaller items like glass shards or bottle caps to fall through, while larger items continue along the conveyor. Next, powerful magnets are used to extract ferrous metals such as steel cans. Magnets attract these metals, pulling them away from the rest of the stream and into a separate container for further processing.
Aluminium cans and other non-ferrous metals are separated using an eddy current separator. This device creates a magnetic field that repels aluminium, causing it to jump off the conveyor belt into its own collection area. Meanwhile, glass is sorted by both size and colour. Glass items are often broken into small pieces called cullet, which are then sorted using optical scanners that detect different colours. This colour separation is important because recycled glass must be matched to the intended use—clear, green, or brown glass.
Paper and cardboard are separated using a combination of air classifiers and manual picking. Air classifiers blow lighter materials, such as paper, upwards while heavier materials fall down. Workers then check the sorted paper and cardboard to ensure it is free from contamination before baling it for transport to paper mills. Optical sorting technology is also increasingly used to identify and separate different types of paper, such as newspapers, magazines, and mixed paper.
Plastics present a unique challenge due to the variety of types and their similar appearance. Advanced MRFs use optical sorters equipped with near-infrared sensors to identify and separate plastics based on their resin codes (such as PET, HDPE, and others). These machines can distinguish between clear drink bottles, coloured detergent bottles, and other plastic packaging, sorting them into different streams for recycling. In some facilities, plastics are also separated by density using flotation tanks—lighter plastics float, while heavier ones sink.
Once all materials have been sorted into their respective categories, they are compressed into large bales for transport to specialist recycling plants. Here, the materials are cleaned and processed into raw materials that can be used to manufacture new products. For example, recycled paper is pulped and turned into new paper products, metals are melted down and reformed, glass is crushed and remelted, and plastics are shredded and pelletised for reuse.
Throughout this process, quality control is essential. Any contamination—such as food residue, non-recyclable plastics, or hazardous waste—can spoil entire batches of recyclable material, making them unsuitable for recycling and increasing the likelihood that they will end up in landfill. That’s why clearance companies like We Clear Everything take extra care to educate customers and staff about what can and cannot be recycled, and to pre-sort materials wherever possible.
The benefits of effective household recycling sorting are significant. It conserves natural resources, saves energy, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and supports the UK’s circular economy. For customers using a clearance service, it means peace of mind that their unwanted items are being handled responsibly, with as much material as possible diverted from landfill and given a new lease of life.
By understanding how household recycling is sorted, We Clear Everything ensures that every clearance—whether a single bulky item or a full property clear-out—is part of a sustainable, efficient process. This commitment not only helps protect the environment but also provides customers with a reliable, stress-free way to clear space and do their part for the planet.