Simpler Recycling came into force for London households on 31 March 2026. The headline change is consistency: every borough now collects the same five streams to the same standard, so a recycling rule that works in Camden also works in Croydon. In practice, most boroughs already collected dry recyclables in some form, but the regulation closes the gaps – weekly food waste is mandatory, a defined list of materials each council must accept, and standardised caddies. Garden waste stays optional and chargeable in most boroughs. This guide explains what changed in your kitchen and bin store, the awkward items the new rules still won’t take, and where to turn when the council can’t fit you in.
Council Wait Times Too Long?
Council bulky collections run 5–14 working days in most London boroughs. We collect same day across all 32 boroughs, fixed price from a photo, and sort everything for recycling at the depot.
What Actually Changed in Your Bin Set-Up
From 31 March 2026, every London borough must collect the same five core streams to the same minimum standard:
- Paper and card – cardboard, packaging, magazines, newspapers, junk mail.
- Plastic – rigid plastics with a recycling symbol (bottles, pots, tubs, trays, milk cartons). Plastic film follows in 2027.
- Glass – bottles and jars, rinsed.
- Metal – cans, tins, aluminium foil, foil trays, empty aerosols.
- Food waste – cooked or raw, collected weekly in a sealable caddy.
What that means in practice depends on where you live. Boroughs that already ran a strong food waste scheme – Camden, Islington, Westminster, Lambeth and most of inner London – have only had to tweak the rules. Outer boroughs and parts of east London that previously offered food waste only to houses (not flats) have rolled out caddies to everyone. If you didn’t have a food caddy in 2025, you should have received one by post or on doorstep delivery by now – if not, contact your council’s waste team and request one.
Garden waste was deliberately left outside the regulation. Councils can charge for it, run a free service, or skip it entirely. That isn’t a Simpler Recycling failure – it’s the policy choice.
The Weekly Food Caddy – What It Will and Won’t Take
The food caddy is the single biggest change for most London households. The 7-litre kitchen caddy stays indoors next to your bin, and a larger 23-litre external caddy goes out for collection.
What goes in: all food waste – cooked or raw, meat, fish, bones, dairy, eggshells, fruit and vegetable peel, tea bags, coffee grounds, plate scrapings, mouldy or out-of-date food still in its packaging (unwrap first).
What doesn’t go in: liquids, cooking oil (separate route – pour into a bottle and take to a HWRC), pet waste, garden waste, and almost all plastic packaging including standard carrier bags. The food then goes to anaerobic digestion or in-vessel composting and becomes biogas or soil improver.
Liners: most boroughs accept compostable bags certified to EN 13432 (look for the Seedling logo). A few accept newspaper or kitchen roll as a liner. Standard plastic bags are not accepted by the in-vessel composting plants and will contaminate the whole load. Caddies wash clean with hot water; the smell people fear comes from food sitting wet in plastic, not from the caddy itself.
Flats: if you live above the ground floor, store the kitchen caddy in the freezer or in a sealed container during summer. The communal external food bin should be locked or weighted – if it isn’t, ask your block manager to fix that, because foxes will get in within days.
Sorting Tips That Protect Your Borough’s Recycling Rate
Roughly 17% of what Londoners put in their recycling bin is rejected at the sorting plant – contamination is the single biggest reason a bin lorry drives recyclables straight to incineration. A few practical rules cut that sharply:
- Empty before you put it in. Anything wet or full of leftover food contaminates everything around it. Tip out, rinse, dry.
- Lids on or off? Lids on for plastic bottles (they get separated mechanically). Lids off for jars and glass bottles (lids are metal – separate stream).
- Pizza boxes: the clean lid is card and recyclable; the greasy base goes in food waste.
- No tissues, no kitchen roll, no nappies in recycling. They’re food-contact waste regardless of what material the tissue is. General bin.
- Mirrors, Pyrex, drinking glasses are not glass-recycling-stream items – different melting points. They go in general waste or a HWRC.
- Black plastic trays are now officially accepted but many sorting plants still can’t see them on the infrared belt. If you have a choice, choose the supermarket alternative.
Awkward Items the Bin Won’t Take
Simpler Recycling regulates what goes into the kerbside bins. Plenty of household items still need a separate route. Here’s where the awkward stuff goes in London:
- Old sofa, mattress, wardrobe, big appliances – council bulky waste collection (book ahead, £25–£50 for 3–5 items, 5–14 working day wait), a HWRC, or a same-day bulky waste collection.
- Electricals – small electricals fit a HWRC WEEE bin; larger items go via bulky collection or specialist routes (see our electronic recycling page).
- Paint and chemicals – HWRC hazardous bay. Don’t pour paint down a drain – offence under the Water Resources Act.
- Fridges and freezers – need degassing of the refrigerant gas. Council bulky collection or specialist removal.
- Garden waste – council garden waste subscription (usually £60–£90 per year for fortnightly rounds) or a HWRC green waste bay.
- Textiles – clothing banks, charity shops for wearable items, HWRC textile containers for unwearable.
Flat and HMO Challenges
Roughly half of Londoners live in a flat or shared property, and Simpler Recycling has real friction points for that group:
No room for the caddy: small kitchens often don’t have a spare floor footprint. The 7-litre indoor caddy fits inside most cupboards or on top of the fridge. Several boroughs now stock a slim 5-litre caddy – ask your council if they have one.
Communal bin stores: a single shared bin store serves multiple flats, and one neighbour’s contamination can spoil the whole block’s recycling rate. If your block’s bins are repeatedly missed because of contamination, ask the managing agent or freeholder to commission signage and a brief tenant information notice. The council’s waste team will usually provide both for free.
Fly-tipping risk: if a resident moves out and leaves a sofa in the bin store, it’s fly-tipping regardless of who owns the building. Don’t put loose furniture in a communal bin area – book a collection.
HMOs and short-term rentals: houses in multiple occupation often run out of recycling capacity because residents change every few months. Landlords are responsible for ensuring the property has the right bin set-up; tenants are responsible for using it correctly.
Where Any London Waste Fits In for Households
Most household waste is handled by your council – that’s the cheapest route, and the weekly food waste and dry recycling collections are fundamentally free at point of use. Any London Waste exists for the cases where the council can’t fit you in or the volume is too big for kerbside.
Typical jobs we run for households: end-of-tenancy clearances when you need everything gone in 48 hours, garden clear-outs that produce more than the council garden bin will take, single bulky items (sofas, mattresses) where the council’s next slot is three weeks away, and renovation rubble that obviously can’t go in the household bin.
We’re a fully licensed waste carrier (EA registration CBDU527690), we sort everything for recycling at the depot, and you get a Waste Transfer Note emailed after the job – the legal record that proves your waste was disposed of properly. Photos via WhatsApp get a fixed quote within minutes; we don’t bid blind over the phone.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. From 31 March 2026 every London borough must run a weekly food waste collection to every household, including flats. If you haven’t received a caddy or your collection isn’t happening, contact your council’s waste team – the obligation is on them.
Most boroughs offer a smaller 5-litre slim caddy on request. The 7-litre standard caddy fits on top of most fridges, inside a cupboard, or in a drawer. Keeping it sealed and emptying it every couple of days – or storing it in the freezer in summer – eliminates the smell that puts people off.
No. Standard plastic bags don’t break down in anaerobic digestion or in-vessel composting and will contaminate the whole load. Use compostable liners certified to EN 13432 (look for the Seedling logo) or newspaper if your borough accepts it.
Contamination – the recycling crew may leave the bin uncollected with a tag explaining why, or the load may be downgraded to general waste at the sorting plant. Repeat offences in some boroughs lead to a warning letter and ultimately a fixed penalty, but enforcement against individual households is rare. The bigger issue is that one bad bin can contaminate the whole lorry.
Yes. Bulky waste sits outside Simpler Recycling. Every London council still runs a paid bulky collection service – typically £25–£50 for 3–5 items with a 5–14 working day wait. Compare that to a
same-day removal if the timeline matters.
Probably yes. Garden waste is not a Simpler Recycling core stream, so councils can choose to charge for it, run a free service, or skip it entirely. Most London boroughs charge £60–£90 per year for a fortnightly brown-bin scheme. A handful (Wandsworth, Hammersmith & Fulham at the time of writing) still run free garden collections.
