Why your Hospitality business needs to recycle
How your Hospitality business can comply with the new business recycling legislation
Having looked at the business case for recycling, it’s time to delve into the details of what the new legislation means for your business.
The the legislation will require you to separate out will include:
Glass, such as drinks bottles and rinsed empty food jars
Metal, such as drinks cans and food tins, empty aerosols, aluminium foil, aluminium foil food trays and tubes
Plastic, such as rinsed empty food containers and bottles
Cartons used for food, drinks and liquids
Paper and cardboard
Food waste
It will be important to make sure you separate out the right materials and avoid by any non-recyclable materials.
Good to know
The legislation requires that all these materials are separated for recycling. The new regulations will apply to all businesses, including hotels, restaurants, cafés, takeaways, catering businesses, shopping centre food courts, canteens, public houses, shops that serve food, supermarkets, schools/colleges with canteens, prisons, nursing homes and hospitals. The Government isn’t proposing a minimum food waste weight before the new legislation applies, so it’s likely that this guidance will be relevant to your workplace.
What is the new legislation?
Under Section 57 – Separation of Waste, the Environment Act 2021 makes provision for amending the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (Section 45AZA and Section 45AZB) governing the separate collection, in England, of household waste from relevant non-domestic premises.
Workplaces and relevant non-domestic premises will need to separate dry recycling (except plastic film) and food waste for recycling by 31 March 2025. If you’re a smaller workplace, with fewer than ten full-time equivalent employees, you’ve got until 31 March 2027, but it’s a good idea to take the opportunity to comply early – one less thing to worry about!
As waste is a , each of the four UK nations has slightly different requirements for recycling. If you’re responsible for managing waste in your workplace, visit our sister site in Wales or in Northern Ireland. There’s also similar guidance available for Scotland.