Simpler Recycling – Government announces national changes

You may have heard about the Government’s recent announcement following its proposed ‘Simpler Recycling’ consultation.

The outcomes ask every local authority to collect the same materials for recycling via a weekly collection. The materials include:

• paper and card;
• plastic bottles;
• pots tubs and trays;
• glass bottles and jars;
• metal food and drinks cans;
• cartons;
• aluminium foil;
• food waste; and
• to provide a garden waste subscription service.

As you’ll be aware, we already collect all the items for most of our residents, meaning little change will be seen to collections. For residents in flats, food waste and carton collections will need to be introduced.

The national ‘Simpler Recycling’ reforms announced in October also mean all businesses – and organisations like hospitals and schools – must have separate food waste and recycling collections in place by the end of March 2025.

Businesses with fewer than ten full-time employees have until 31 March 2027 to meet these requirements.

At the same time, a further consultation for local authorities has been opened by the Government on ‘statutory guidance’ recommending that rubbish collections are made more frequently, either weekly or fortnightly. We'll be sharing our views with the consultation as well as seeking more clarity on the proposals. We have no plans to change our current three-weekly rubbish collections, which along with expanded recycling collections, have helped to reduce rubbish whilst increasing our recycling rate to its highest ever level - above the national average.

Similarly, you may have also seen media coverage of the ‘seven bin’ recycling system. This was never adopted nationally and we don't plan to change our system.

Why do we ask you to separate your recycling?

When you pre-sort your materials prior to collection, the environmental and financial benefits include:

• Helping us to recycle more and recycle closer to home – it's been shown to produce better sorted recycling with less ‘contamination’ by other materials. This is more in demand from UK re-processors and more valuable. Our Recycling Tracker shows how this helps keep the vast majority of our recycling in the UK.
• Saving carbon – there's no need for the very heavy carbon footprint of an energy-hungry Material Recovery Facility (MRF).
• A better price for the recycling we sell to re-processors and do not have the significant extra costs of running a MRF and supplying 260,000 plus wheeled bins. This helps us keep our costs down.