By now waste collection authorities in England will undoubtedly be aware that by 31st March 2026 they will be required to arrange for the collection of household food waste, alongside the already required collections of recyclates (glass, metal, plastic, and paper and card) and residual waste.
This forms part of Simpler Recycling, which seeks to enable consistent and more streamlined collections from households, businesses, and relevant non-domestic properties like schools and hospitals.
Simpler Recycling sits beside other policy initiatives, including extended producer responsibility for packaging (“EPR”), and a deposit return scheme for drinks containers (“DRS”). The consistency of recycling methodologies across the country is seen as a key element towards maximising recycling and reducing waste. This is an important series of changes seeking to enable the UK to achieve a 65% municipal recycling rate by 2035.
The changes to household food waste collections form part of a timeline for Simpler Recycling:
- By 31st March 2025, businesses and non-domestic premises in England with 10 or more full time equivalent employees were required to arrange for collection of food waste alongside glass, metal, plastic, and paper and card. While the majority of businesses can be expected to make arrangements for the collection of these waste streams by means of private contractors, waste collection authorities have a duty to provide this service if required and should have systems in place to respond to requests should they arise.
- Micro-firms (with fewer than 10 full time equivalent employees) have until 31st March 2027 to make the same arrangements.
- Household food waste collections are to be added to the current requirements for glass, metal, plastic and paper and card by 31st March 2026.
- Kerbside plastic film collections for households, businesses and relevant non-domestic premises will be required by 31st March 2027.
Food waste collections have a significant role to play in increasing recycling rates, and many of the above changes are to be welcomed. Only about half of English waste collection authorities currently have a food waste collection service, leaving many therefore to address this particular change before next year.
This raises a number of questions and challenges:
- Budgeting: how to cover the costs of the food waste collections for households when introduced. While Defra confirmed a pot of £295m to be shared across local authorities to cover the cost
- of providing the service, inevitably this will not necessarily cover the true costs of providing the service. Waste collection authorities will need to consider therefore how to fund the service – for some this might include, for example, electing to start charging for garden waste collections (where the authority has not previously done so) to enable reallocation of previous budget to food waste;
- Procurement: authorities may need to procure new collection vehicles (lease, hire or purchase), new bins for households, and new service providers. What is needed will be different for each authority, depending on what services are currently being offered, what contracts are already in place, and whether the authority would seek to rely on an exemption to allow the co-collection of food and garden waste. Where new plant and fleet is required this may need early ordering to accommodate lead times;
- Interface with Existing Contracts: authorities that have procured waste collection services contracts in recent years may have incorporated food waste collection as an anticipated change, and so rather than procuring a new service provider may be looking at variations to those existing contracts;
- Interface with Other Services: the knock-on effect on waste disposal arrangements (whether within the authority in the case of unitary authorities, or across authorities in two-tier areas) needs to be addressed and, as above, thought will need to be given to any changes required to existing contracts and legal and contractual impacts of those changes;
- Facilities and Land: if new vehicles are being used for the collections, can existing depots and operations sites accommodate these? Are new facilities needed?
There is much to do, therefore, to be ready for the 31st March 2026 deadline. Councils not already working through the decisions they need to make and the action they need to take should start as a matter of priority.
For more information
For more information, please contact Gayle Monk and Alex Lawrence.