Liberal Democrat councillor Eleanor Macy and I have taken the opportunity of a visit to Grosvenor Waste Management in Crayford. Grosvenor is the company that receives the recyclable rubbish collected from Harlow residents through the fortnightly kerbside collections, and we're here to see what happens after it's collected.

We're kitted out, not only in hard hat and yellow jacket, but also steel capped boots and plastic goggles. There are forklift trucks everywhere, and huge amounts of machinery which separates the different types of recyclable. A large drum like a tumble dryer spins the rubbish round for 15 minutes - bottles and cans fall through holes in the bottom, while large pieces of paper stick to the sides. There's a series of conveyor belts, and strong magnets which pick up the steel cans off the belts. Each type of recyclable material finally ends up in its own area. There's very little sorting by hand - only one upstairs room with men picking plastic wrapping out of the waste paper stream and dumping it in bins.

The main 'spanners in the works' when it comes to the waste that comes into Grosvenor are very wet paper (which reduces the overall quality of the paper that's salvaged) and textiles - a lot of old clothing, cloths and shoes end up in the recyclable stream when they shouldn't. That's particularly annoying, because taxpayers pay to get it collected, taken to Crayford, sorted, and then taken to landfill and dumped after all.

A number of Harlow residents have said they don't believe the rubbish they put out for recycling is actually recycled, because it's all mixed together. When such a lot of investment has gone into a facility that can separate out all our recyclables automatically, and make it easy for us to recycle, it's a shame that not everyone is yet involved. It would be wonderful if everyone could be given a visit to Grosvenor, to see for themselves what's happening and how much of our rubbish is being kept away from landfill.