Black bin waste can be taken to an Energy from Waste facility. The incinerator burns the rubbish and generates electricity. The high moisture content in garden waste makes the Energy from Waste facility inefficient and more polluting, so we cannot accept black bins that contain garden waste.
In some circumstances Warwickshire County Council might ask us to take waste to a landfill site to meet their contractual requirements, but this costs them more.
Blue-bin recycling is taken to a mechanical processing plant that separates the recycling into the different materials, which are then taken away for reprocessing. Contaminated materials are converted into electricity at an Energy from Waste plant.
Green garden bin waste is taken to an In Vessel Composting facility. The waste rots down very quickly in the enclosed space and gets very hot, killing off any harmful bacteria that may be in cooked meat or other food waste. The compost produced is low quality, however, and is rarely useful for gardening. It is often used in landscaping, and to help cap landfill sites.
Garden waste collected at household waste recycling centres (tips) is normally taken to a conventional compost facility, where the waste rots down more slowly and at lower temperatures. This means that it cannot be used to process food waste. The process is cheaper and the compost produced is higher quality than In Vessel compost. It is typically used by farmers.