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Updates to sustainable waste disposal practices

Blog
The YPO Team
14 Mar 2025

It is estimated that the UK wastes 9.52 million tonnes of food every year which is enough to feed more than 30 million people a year. 70% of food waste comes from households, 16 form manufactures, 12% from hospitality and 2% from the retail industry. Although this is a massive problem that needs to be tackled, a key factor in regaining the lost energy and resources from over consumption is via waste collection management.

Separating food waste and recyclables is an important step in supporting the UK’s overall sustainability goals. They help encourage circular economy practices as well as support renewable energy and the lowering of greenhouse gas emissions.

Benefits of food waste separation

If food waste is not properly separated, it contaminates recyclable material and makes it unsuitable for recycling. This causes a larger amount of waste to instead be sent to landfills or incinerated therefore, increasing methane and other greenhouse gases emitted. Increasing recycling efficiency greatly helps the UK achieve its climate targets.

Food waste being separately disposed of and composted means it can be used to produce biogas for clean energy, reducing the reliance on fossil fuels. It can also be reused for soil enrichment reducing the amount of resources consumed in food production.

Changes to food waste collection

With new waste collection legislation coming into effect, all workplaces and waste collection authorities will be obligated to provide options to separate waste in 3 categories:

-dry recyclables (plastic, metal, glass, paper and card)

-food waste

-black bin residual waste

Considerations for workplaces and collection authorities

Workplaces must also further separate paper and card from other dry recyclables unless their waste collector collects them together. Either the business itself or the waste management contractor of the business has a legal duty to take all reasonable steps to apply the waste hierarchy and duty of care in line with simpler recycling.

Waste collection authorities will be obligated to do food waste collections weekly and also reasonably frequent residual and recyclable waste collections to ensure no build-up of odorous waste at the curb side. The size of bins and storage, number of occupants, and type of premises should be considered when determining collection frequency.

The changes to waste collection will come into effect on March 31, 2025 for workplaces or March 31, 2027 for micro-firms with work hours equivalent to under 10 full-time employees. Waste collection authorities for households will need to make these changes by March 31, 2026. If you’re looking for support in procuring waste management vehicles and services, we can help. Check out lots 1,2 and 3 of our Purchase, Lease and Hire of Vehicles framework and lot 1 of our Alternative Fuelled Vehicles framework for more information.

Author

The YPO Team

YPO supplies products and services to a wide range of customers including schools, local authorities, charities, emergency services, public sector and other businesses such as nurseries and care homes. YPO are 100% publicly owned, by 13 local authorities, which means the profits made are returned to public sector customers, delivering even better value for money.