What is the Simpler Recycling Legislation? Everything You Need to Know
As you may have heard, the laws surrounding recycling and commercial waste collections for businesses and non-residential properties are changing. The Simpler Recycling Legislation is designed to standardise waste collection in England and ensure consistent recycling practices for households, businesses, and schools.
In this blog post, we’ll explore the new legislation and provide a guide for everything you need to know ahead of its implementation.
What is “Simpler Recycling?”
The law is changing for all businesses and also non-domestic properties in the UK. “Simpler Recycling” is a new set of regulations designed to make recycling easier and to ensure core recycling collections are taking place throughout the country. This will begin on March 31st, 2025, for businesses before extending to household recycling in 2026.
The end goal of the Simpler Recycling system is to make sure that glass, metal, plastic, paper, and food waste are collected separately from general waste. This will not only make recycling much less of a logistical headache for businesses but also encourage best practices nationwide and prevent recyclable materials from ending up in landfills.
The Simpler Recycling Timeline
From March 31st, 2025, core recycling will be collected from large and small businesses, as well as non-residential properties. This also includes a separate stream for food waste recycling.
From March 31st, 2026, local authorities must implement standardised core recycling collections, which include weekly food waste collections for homes.
From March 31st, 2027, businesses with less than 10 employees will need to be compliant. Additionally, plastic film will also be included in the plastic waste stream.
What Does This Mean for Your Business?
As you can see above, businesses with more than 10 employees and other non-residential premises will be affected first (March 31st, 2025), which means there’s not much time before you need to be compliant. The most noticeable impact on businesses will be the need to separate all of the recyclable materials from general waste. This means you and your employees will no longer be able to dispose of any dry recyclables or food waste in a general waste bin.
All businesses will need to have separate bins and collections for their recyclable waste materials. Although that may sound like a lot of bins and organisations, the majority of businesses will only need three or four disposal bins to achieve compliance. For example:
- A dry mixed recycling bin for paper, glass, plastics and metals.
- A bin for paper and cardboard unless your waste collector has arranged to collect them together.
- A bin for food waste should be placed in its own container and should not be mixed with any other waste.
- And finally, a general waste bin for anything that can’t be recycled (general black bin bag waste).
Prepare Your Business for Simpler Recycling
As it stands, many of the UK’s businesses are not ready for the Simpler Recycling reform and regulations. If you’re one of those businesses and want to ensure you’re compliant with all upcoming recycling policies, we can help. No matter how big or small your business is, Mardon Recycling Machinery can help you achieve efficient and compliant waste management processes.
Our range of RamPack Balers and Compactors, can bale dry recyclables, such as paper and cardboard as well as plastics, into manageable bales, which can be sold to recycling companies and can help offset waste disposal fees.
Our RamPack Compactors can reduce waste volumes up to an impressive 75%
Our Bin & Bag compactors can reduce waste volume directly in the bins, meaning more waste can fit in each bin, potentially reducing the number of bins required.
Also, our Static & Portable range can hold large volumes of waste in containers and significantly reduce the amount of waste collections needed and associated fees.
Starting with a free site visit, our team will provide personalised advice and comprehensive support to meet all of your recycling needs. This support includes an end-to-end service consisting of custom designs, installation, and (of course) high-quality waste collection services. No hassle or headaches, just a simple and effective “one-stop shop” for all waste disposal needs.
Contact us today to schedule a free site survey or explore our recycling equipment and find the best solution for your business’s recycling needs.
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