Simpler Recycling

What is it?

Simpler Recycling is a set of legislative reforms, that will impact businesses in England by 31st March 2025.

The reforms are designed to simplify waste in England as they will ensure a standardised set of materials can be recycled in all regions across the country.

What are the rules?

Businesses must have specific materials collected separately from general waste and either recycled, anaerobically digested or composted. These are glass, metal, plastics, paper, cardboard and food waste.

At a minimum your business will need to have in place a dry mixed recycling service (for glass, metal, plastics, paper and card), a food recycling service and a general waste service. 

Defra's latest update on 29.11.24 clarified that businesses need to separate paper and card from other dry recyclables (glass, metal and plastics) unless their waste collector has completed an assessment to collect them together. 

First Mile has completed this assessment so customers can continue to include paper and card in their dry mixed recycling service. 

• First Mile customers can continue to include paper and card in your dry mixed recycling service or separate it. We recommend setting up a single-stream service if you produce a lot of one type of material (glass, metal, plastics, paper, card) for better recycling.
• Food waste must be separate.
• Residual waste must be separate. 

1. Set up a dry recyclables recycling service(s): all businesses will need to recycle glass, metal, plastics, paper and cardboard.

For this, there are two steps:

Step 1: Ensure that all dry recyclables are collected separately from general waste by implementing a dry mixed recycling service.

Step 2: If you have a high volume of a particular material (e/g paper, card, glass, metal, plastics) set up a single-stream recycling service to collect it separately to boost your recycling rate.

2. Set up a food recycling service: businesses require a food recycling service that separates food (food waste, tea bags, coffee grounds, bones & shells) from general waste.

3. Set up a general waste service: for all remaining contaminated or unrecyclable waste businesses must have a residual waste stream

Deadline: Most businesses and non-residential organisations in England are required to implement these changes by 31st March 2025.

If you are a micro-firm of less than 10 full-time employees this is not required until March 2027.

Am I compliant?

First Mile customers can check if they're compliant on their recycling dashboard in the Customer Portal. 

We are also here to support all of our customers to prepare ahead of the changes. Contact us via the form below or by calling us if you have any questions or would like to set up a new recycling stream.