Ever wondered just what happens to your rubbish?

and green waste.

Figures for January to March show Bromsgrove householders recycled or composted 34 per cent of their rubbish, that's ten per cent higher than any other council in Worcestershire.

Inspired by the figures Advertiser/Messenger chief reporter Pete Lammas set out to discover 'just what happens to the material we put into our grey and green wheeliebins or cram into the recycling boxes after they are collected each week?'

To find the answer he visited Severn Waste Service's giant tip and modern reclamation site at

Hill and Moor near Pershore.

ON arrival at the Throckmorton site I was welcomed by Severn Waste's marketing director Ian Barber, a man who in the nicest possible way can talk rubbish for England.

We were joined by Bromsgrove District Council's environmental strategy officer Anna Wardell, her assistant Rachel Kennett and press officer Mary Pryce.

Ian explained that his company is contracted to handle and dispose of the 400,000 tonnes of waste collected by all the district councils in Herefordshire and Worcestershire each year.

Briefly, the firm is a consortium of two huge multi-functional Spanish companies with interests world wide.

Waste and its management is a gigantic political and complex business and is likely to become even more so in future, says Ian. Continued pressure from Brussels for more efficient recycling and less material dumped in big holes percolates down to firms like Ian's, which has to implement policy and strive to meet ever tighter targets. He says manufacturers in the future will be made to shoulder more responsibility for recycling their products as they come to the end of their useful life.

The Throckmorton site covers around 240 acres and is easily spotted from the main Worcester to Evesham road as a conspicuous long, grey hill.

Ian said that tipping started there in the 1960s as a 'landfill' site, when many local town tips closed. It should now more properly be called a 'landform' site because that is precisely what is happening.

We board a Land Rover and are taken on bumpy ride to the very edge of a precipice on the summit of the tip.

Here landfill manager Michael Hornby points out way below us four main 'cells' or stages of the tip's past, present and ongoing development.

One, a huge area, is being dug out to a depth of several meters and 'sealed' with excavated clay to prevent leakage. This will form the base of a new tip, which will be capable of containing two years' worth of waste at some time in the future. Adjacent is a similarly prepared cell. However, this is complete and the clay liner has been topped with gravel and is ready for use when part of the site currently being used is full.

This is the point where some 800 tonnes of rubbish a day, including Bromsgrove's, is dumped after the now familiar 'demountable pods' into which our grey bins are emptied, are collected and returned to the depot at Aston Fields by Severn Waste staff.

It is interesting to note the firm employs a falconer to scare off the thousands of gulls who gorge themselves on the rubbish, and which are a potential source of disease. Behind us is the finished part of the mini-mountain, capped with several layers of clay and either grassed or planted with trees and with its gas emission pipes in place. The whole site produces a gas which is converted into electricity and is fed into the national system. It is sufficient to supply wards the size of Belbroughton, Clent and Hagley with power for up to a week.

Moving downhill we are shown the lofty heaps of green waste. This material is shredded and turned every week to allow it to compost naturally, which is does after just three months. It is a natural soil conditioner, sold to anyone who wants it at £2.50 a tonne plus VAT from the tip direct or £2 per bag from household waste sites. Many of Britain's stately home gardens benefit from it as does the BBC Gardeners' World garden at Berryfields.

Anna stresses it is important to maintain the quality and urges householders not to contaminate their green bins with plastic sacks or other household waste.

Moving to the huge 'MRF' Materials Reclamation Facility, building we are shown the various hi-tech processes which separates the mountains of food and drinks cans according to the material they are manufactured from and which once sorted are compressed into convenient sized bales ready for reprocessing.

The range of different plastic recyclables are however, sorted into categories by operators at a conveyor and again are baled ready for being reused in a wide range of products.

Glass, paper and thin card recycled by Bromsgrove householders is, after being sorted at the kerbside, sent direct from the Aston Fields depot for reprocessing elsewhere.

Anna said national Big Recycle Week runs from June 27 and is aimed at highlighting the fact that waste is everyone's problem and not one that disappears every week when the collection lorry turns the corner at the end of your road.

"Now, many do not have to deal with it on a day to day basis, but if we carry on being ignorant about it there will come a time when we are forced to face up to waste and then it may all be too late.

"Although we are achieving a high level of recycling we cannot afford to be complacent. Residents should aim to recycle as much as they can either by the kerbside collections or our network of recycling banks."