What is General Waste?
General waste is defined as items and rubbish from homes and businesses that can't yet be recycled. Previously, general waste was typically sent to landfill, and in some areas across the UK it is still handled in this way. However, there are now new ways to extract and recover value from waste material by turning it into energy.
Where Does My General Waste Go?
After your general waste bin is collected by your Borough and District Council it is taken to a Veolia facility for disposal in the most efficient way possible. Most people within the UK assume that their general waste ends up in landfill, yet on average 95% of waste is sent to an Energy Recovery Facility (ERF) and used to make electricity.
Once your waste has arrived at the Energy Recovery Facility, it is unloaded at a tipping hall. The waste is then fed into a furnace which creates heat. This heat is used to boil water and produces steam which is then utilised to spin turbines. The turbines are connected to generators which make electricity to be redistributed to homes and businesses.
