Is this recycling company telling the truth

[Dingdong99]

Apologies, this is a bit of a dull thread...

At work, our 3 x general waste and 1 x recycling 1100L bins are emptied into the same dust cart

The company say that although the rubbish is mixed when put into the dust cart, it's then separated back at the depot. They're a reputable company so I'd like to trust what they claim, but then why do we always separate our waste for the council etc

What do you think?

It depends on the company, but a lot of waste companies take waste back to a Materials Recovery Facility, where it's sorted through a mix of mechanical and hand sorting. Usually they prefer to have the materials pre sorted, though, but if they don't have enough trucks to run separate pick up rounds for the general waste and the recycling, then they might well pick it up as one and then sort it all later.

If you know the company, put their name and MRF recycling into google and it will tell you if they have a facility like that.

Veolia, for example, has loads of MRF locations: https://www.veolia.co.uk/about-us/veolia-uk/recycling-reuse-and-treatment-facilities/materials-recovery-facilities-mrf

It's very unlikely they are dumping it all in landfill because they pay extra charges to put waste in landfill, so most waste companies now do try to avoid landfill as much as possible.