New business waste and recycling rules in England

Individuals, households, businesses and other organisations all have a duty of care to take reasonable steps to ensure that their waste is disposed of responsibly.

 

Similar to the way that most households have separate collections for different types of domestic waste, new regulations coming into effect in England at the end of March 2025 will require most workplaces to separate their waste into different groups for collection.

 

The regulations identify five streams of recyclable waste and will require that these are collected separately from other relevant waste. The five recyclable waste streams are glass, metal, plastic, paper and card, and food waste.

 

Further, the five recyclable waste streams must be collected separately except where this is not practical or has no significant environmental benefit, in which case two or more of the streams can be collected together. However, food waste cannot be mixed with any of the other recyclable streams.

 

In practice, businesses will need to agree on procedures with their waste collection providers. In many cases organisations that produce waste that is similar in nature to general household waste will need three sets of bins:

• One for dry recyclable waste, specifically glass, metal, plastic, paper and card
• One for food waste
• One for everything else

 

The regulations don’t specify how big these bins must be or how often they need to be collected; this will need to be agreed upon with your waste provider.

 

While these new rules come into force for most organisations from 31st March 2025, the introduction these rules is delayed to 31st March 2027 for certain smaller businesses. These include businesses that have less than 10 full-time equivalent employees in total across all their sites.

 

The new regulations are in addition to those that already apply to specific types of waste, such as batteries, waste electrical and electronic equipment, end-of-life vehicles, etc.

 

You can find out more about the new rules on the Gov.UK website.

 

If you have any questions or would like support with managing issues at your workplace, please speak to your usual contact or get in touch using the form below.