Guides
Simpler Recycling: what it means for your business
If you run a business, charity or public sector site in England, new rules on how you separate your waste are now in force. They're called Simpler Recycling, and most businesses already had to comply from 31 March 2025.
Here's what the rules actually require, who's covered, and what the deadlines are.
Who this applies to
Simpler Recycling applies to businesses, charities and public sector organisations in England — offices, retail, hospitality, construction sites, warehouses, manufacturing, healthcare, education and more.
Gov.uk's own test is broader than any list: if your business produces waste that's similar in nature and composition to household waste, you're almost certainly in scope.
The deadlines
- 31 March 2025 — businesses with 10 or more full-time equivalent (FTE) employees had to have separate collections in place.
- 31 March 2027 — businesses with fewer than 10 FTE employees (“micro-firms”) have until this date.
If you miss your deadline, the Environment Agency can issue a compliance notice. Ignoring one is itself an offence, and enforcement follows the EA's own Enforcement and Sanctions policy.
The micro-firm threshold, explained
Working out your FTE number isn't just a headcount at one site. Part-time staff count as a pro-rated fraction of a full-time role based on their hours, and volunteers, contractors and self-employed workers don't count towards the total at all.
Crucially, the count is for the whole business, not per site. A business with several small locations can't treat each one as a separate micro-firm: gov.uk gives the example of a business with 3 locations and 5 employees at each — 15 employees in total, so not a micro-firm, even though no single site has 10 staff.
What you have to separate
As the business producing the waste, you must always keep three streams apart:
- Dry recyclable materials — plastic, metal, glass, paper and card, collected together as one stream.
- Food waste — every business in scope must separate it, regardless of volume. There's no small-producer exemption: this rule applies no matter how little food waste you have.
- Residual (non-recyclable) waste.
If your site produces garden waste, you must arrange for it to be recycled or composted if it delivers the best environmental outcome.
Glass — such as drinks bottles and rinsed empty food jars. Metal — such as drinks cans and rinsed empty food tins, empty aerosols, aluminium foil, aluminium food trays and tubes. Plastic — such as rinsed empty food containers, bottles and cartons. Paper and cardboard — such as newspapers, envelopes, boxes and cardboard food packaging.
No kitchen doesn't mean no food waste stream
You still need to collect food waste separately even if your workplace doesn't serve food or have a kitchen — tea bags and fruit peelings from a staff kitchenette are enough to put you in scope.
Compostable packaging doesn't go in the food waste bin
Packaging labelled “compostable” or “biodegradable” can't go in with food waste. Treat it as non-recyclable waste, or arrange a dedicated collection for it.
Paper and card: a duty on your waste collector, not you
One distinction worth being precise about: as a business, your legal duty is to separate dry recyclables (plastic, metal, glass, paper and card) as one stream from food waste and residual waste — you don't need to split paper and card out yourself.
The further separation of paper and card from the rest of that stream is a duty on your waste collector, not on you. Gov.uk's “Legal requirement for waste collectors” section requires collectors to collect paper and card separately from plastic, metal and glass, unless doing so isn't technically or economically practicable, or delivers no significant environmental benefit — in which case the collector can complete a written co-collection assessment instead.
Construction sites
Construction sites have their own line in the guidance: the same recyclable materials must be kept separate from other construction waste, and must never be mixed or compacted with it.
Contamination
If you spot significant contamination in a recycling stream before it's collected — the wrong material mixed in — the guidance is direct: dispose of it as general waste rather than let it go out as recycling.
Bins, contracts and who collects
You choose the container sizes and collection frequency to suit the volume you actually produce — the rules don't mandate a specific bin count or a weekly pickup.
Your collector can be a private waste company, your local authority, or a mix of providers. Whoever you use, check they're on the Public Register of Waste Carriers, Brokers and Dealers — that's your evidence they're licensed to move your waste at all.
The legislation behind it
Simpler Recycling is implemented through the Separation of Waste (England) Regulations 2025 (SI 2025/140), made under sections 45A, 45AZA and 45AZB of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 — the provisions, inserted by the Environment Act 2021, that create the duty to separate waste streams.
Common questions
Who does Simpler Recycling apply to?
- Businesses, charities and public sector organisations in England — offices, retail, hospitality, construction sites, warehouses, manufacturing, healthcare, education and more. Gov.uk's test is broad: if you generate waste similar in nature and composition to household waste, you're likely in scope.
What waste do I have to separate?
- Three streams, always: dry recyclable materials (plastic, metal, glass, paper and card, collected together), food waste, and residual (non-recyclable) waste. If your site generates garden waste, you must also arrange for it to be recycled or composted if it delivers the best environmental outcome.
When do the Simpler Recycling deadlines apply?
- 31 March 2025 for businesses with 10 or more full-time equivalent employees. 31 March 2027 for micro-firms with fewer than 10 full-time equivalent employees — counted across the whole business, not per site.
Need to get your streams sorted before your deadline?
Sorting food waste, dry recyclables and residual waste into separate streams usually means rethinking your containers and collection schedule, not just your bin count.