A massive overhaul of recycling and bin collections is set to affect all UK homes next year. This week, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs provided an update following a query about public awareness of this significant plan.
The scheme, set to standardise recycling in England from 2026, will require all homes, businesses, and schools to recycle the same materials, according to the Government. Additionally, there will be a minimum requirement for food waste to be collected once a week, which the Government believes will reduce the amount sent to landfill.
The Simpler Recycling plan also suggests that non-hazardous industrial waste should be collected every fortnight. However, local authorities have expressed concerns that this could lead to increased environmental costs elsewhere, such as through additional fuel consumption for transportation.
Labour’s Amanda Hack posed a parliamentary question to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Emma Reynolds, asking: “What discussions her Department has had with PackUK on the adequacy of communications with households on changes to household collections under Simpler Recycling.”
Mary Creagh, Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), explained that it was down to local councils to get in touch with houses directly.
She said: “Local authorities are best placed to communicate specific new collection requirements with their residents when rolling out services. Defra and PackUK are working closely on opportunities to support local authorities with the communication of the changes to household recycling.”
“To support local authorities, Defra has provided £79.5 million transitional resource funding for food waste including specific funding for communications. Under Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for packaging legislation, producers’ disposal fees will contribute to the costs of public information campaigns by the scheme.”
The new default requirement for most households and workplaces will be 4 containers for:residual (non-recyclable) wastefood waste (mixed with garden waste if appropriate)paper and cardall other dry recyclable materials (plastic, metal and glass
These could be various types of containers, including bags, bins or stackable boxes. The document titled ‘Simpler Recycling in England: policy update’ states: “This is the government’s maximum default requirement and is not expected to increase in the future. However, councils and other waste collectors will still have the flexibility to make the best choices to suit local need. This is a sensible, pragmatic approach to the collection of materials for every household and business in England.”
The initiative seeks to standardise policies throughout England and eliminate the ‘postcode lottery’ of bin collections whereby councils gather different materials for recycling, ‘causing confusion for households’.
The alterations promise to guarantee ‘bad-smelling food waste’ will be gathered from all households ‘at least’ weekly.
Authorities anticipate that the modification will boost recycling rates which have stagnated at approximately 44 per cent since 2015.
There is a timeline for the modification:
by 31 March 2025, businesses and relevant non-domestic premises in England will need to arrange for the collection of the core recyclable waste streams, with the exception of garden waste (glass, metal, plastic, paper and card, and food waste)micro-firms (businesses with fewer than 10 full-time equivalent employees) will be temporarily exempt from this requirement. They will have until 31 March 2027 to arrange for recycling of core recyclable waste streamsby 31 March 2026, local authorities will be required to collect the core recyclable waste streams from all households in England. This includes introducing weekly food waste collections for most homes, unless a transitional arrangement appliesby 31 March 2027, kerbside plastic film collections from businesses and relevant non-domestic premises, and households will be introducedWhat will happen to different types of waste:
Co-collecting food and garden waste
To maximise flexibility for local authorities and households, the government is introducing an exemption to allow the co-collection of food and garden waste. The document said: “There is no evidence that this would affect their ability to be recycled or composted, since the materials can always be processed through in-vessel composting when mixed.”
Dry Materials
By default, paper and card should be separately collected from all other dry materials so their potential to be recycled is not reduced. 121 local authorities reported that they already collect paper and card separately from other dry recycling across England.
All other dry materials may be co-collected, as the benefit of simplifying (and thereby potential to increase volumes), offsets the smaller contamination risk. According to the latest WRAP data, 95 local councils already co-collect plastic, metal and glass in this way across England.
The document said: “Simpler Recycling will enable consistent, more streamlined collections from all households, businesses and relevant non-domestic premises (such as schools and hospitals). Local authorities and other waste collectors will be able to co-collect some waste streams by default meaning that they will no longer need to collect 7 separate streams.
“These common-sense changes will not lead to the proliferation of bins but will ensure the same set of materials are collected everywhere in England.”