Simpler Recycling Law Change: What You Need To Know

From 31st March 2025, the laws around recycling for businesses is changing. The Government is introducing what it terms Simpler Recycling, to help make the process of mass recycling easier for businesses to comply with and to enhance the impact sustainable practices can have on an industrial scale.

All businesses and non-domestic premises in England will be legally required to separate their wastes in specific categories as laid out below.

However, businesses considered micro-firms will not have to comply with these changes until March 2027. Most independent hospitality businesses fall into the category of micro-firms, so the majority of NCASS members will not have to alter their current wastage practice this year. It is of course worth understanding the new legislation and how it may affect you in the future.

Micro-firms are workplaces with less than 10 full-time employees (FTEs) in total. This relates to the total number of full time or full-time equivalent employees in a business, rather than in a certain business location. For example, if a business has 3 locations with 5 employees in each location, they have a total of 15 employees.

But for those members who employ more then 10 FTEs then they will need to aware of the requirements to separate their recycling waste by March 2025. They should discuss this with their commercial waste contractor (private waste collector or local authority) who will be able to advise them further and ensure they are meting the requirements ahead of the law change on 31 March 2025.

They will need to present the following wastes separated in accordance with the arrangements with their waste collector:

• Dry recyclable materials – plastic, metal, glass, paper and card (more information on separating recyclable material is in the ‘Separating recyclable waste’ section)
• Food waste
• Black bin waste (residual waste)

For workplaces that generate garden waste, there is a legal requirement to sort this in accordance with waste management hierarchy, either recycling or composting this depending on which will produce the better environmental outcome.

Furthermore, workplaces have autonomy to decide themselves on the size of disposal containers they use and the frequency of waste collections, so they can tailor this to best suit their individual operations.

More information can be found here.