In October 2023, DEFRA announced a scheme where all households, businesses, and workplaces will have the same recycling materials collected as standard. As a result the new default for waste collections from workplaces will be 4 containers for:
- Residual (non-recyclable) waste
- Food waste
- Paper and card
- Comingled recyclables (glass, cans/tins/foil, plastic bottles/pots/tubs/trays)
By 31 March 2025, businesses and non-domestic premises with 10 or more full-time employees must separate their waste as listed above. This will help save resources and supports the UK circular economy.
This rule applies to all such premises, including schools and hospitals, regardless of how many employees are on site at one time. For example, if your business has 5 locations with 2 full-time employees each, you still need to follow these regulations.
This change aims to increase recycling and reduce waste, potentially lowering business costs, saving energy, conserving resources, and protecting the environment.
Smaller businesses with fewer than 10 full-time employees have until 31 March 2027 to comply. These changes support a national policy to achieve a 65% recycling rate by 2035.
Timeline for changes to commercial waste collections
- 31 March 2025: Deadline for businesses, schools and hospitals with more than 10 full time employees to be compliant
- 31 March 2027: Deadline for business with fewer than ten full-time employees to be compliant
- 31 March 2027: Plastic bags and wrapping will be added to the items we can recycle in our recycling service
Fylde Council currently offers general waste euro bin and grey sack collections and a blue sack for cardboard and paper only. We are working on introducing a fully comprehensive service to include all general waste, paper and cardboard, dry recycling and food waste bin as soon as possible. To register your interest in working with the council for your business waste collections please email tradewaste@fylde.gov.uk.
More information about Simpler Recycling can be found on the WRAP website there is also a handy waste calculator on the website that can help each business calculate the amount of containers they will require, this can be found here – Waste Calculator.
