Simpler Recycling In London – The 2026 Rules Explained

If your business or non-domestic premises has 10 or more full-time equivalent employees, you should already be arranging collection of the four core dry recyclables and food waste as separate streams. The rule applies regardless of how many staff are on site at any one time – it is calculated across the legal entity. A 12-person consultancy with three offices is in scope at every office.

Common gaps we still see in London workplaces a year after the deadline: one mixed-recycling bin that combines glass with paper (no longer compliant), no food waste collection in office kitchens, and confidential paper going straight to general waste because nobody set up a separate stream. Each of these is a potential breach.

Schools, charities, places of worship, healthcare premises, hotels, restaurants, retail, and offices are all in scope. The few exceptions are very small premises with no contracted waste collection and certain agricultural exemptions – if in doubt, treat yourself as in scope.

A micro-business is one with fewer than 10 full-time equivalent employees. Two part-time staff on 0.5 FTE each count as one FTE, so a coffee shop with eight part-timers at 0.5 FTE is four FTE total – well inside the micro-business definition. By 31 March 2027 every micro-firm must arrange the same separated collections as a larger employer.

If you are currently using domestic-style bin bags or sharing a building’s general waste, you have roughly twelve months from May 2026 to set up a compliant arrangement. The realistic prep steps are: book a free waste audit to see what you actually generate, request quotes from at least two licensed carriers, agree weekly food waste plus fortnightly mixed dry recyclables and glass collections, and update staff so the right bin gets the right item.

From the same date, kerbside collections of plastic film and carrier bags also begin at every premises in England, so any retailer that bags up film waste separately will be able to put it out for council collection in 2027.

Paper and card

Cardboard boxes, paper packaging, printer paper, magazines, newspapers, junk mail. Greasy pizza boxes go in food waste if very contaminated – the clean parts can be torn off and recycled.

Plastic

Rigid plastics with a recycling symbol – bottles, pots, tubs, trays, milk cartons. Plastic film, bags, and cling film are separate until 2027. Black plastic trays are technically accepted under the new rules but many MRFs still can’t sort them well, so confirm with your carrier.

Glass

Bottles and jars, rinsed. Drinking glasses, Pyrex, and window glass are not glass-recycling-stream items – they have different melting points.

Metal

Food and drink cans, aerosols (empty), aluminium foil, foil trays, metal lids. Larger scrap metal goes through a separate scrap metal route.

Food waste

All food waste – cooked, raw, meat, fish, dairy, bones, plate scrapings, peelings, tea bags, coffee grounds. Composted or sent to anaerobic digestion. Compostable liners are recommended; standard plastic bags are not accepted in most boroughs.

By 31 March 2027, kerbside collections of plastic film must be in place for households and non-domestic premises. This covers bread bags, freezer bags, fruit and vegetable bags, salad bags, courier mailers, and carrier bags – effectively any flexible plastic that scrunches in your hand. Until then, the only routes are large-supermarket front-of-store film bins (Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Co-op) or specialist commercial collections.

For retailers, packaging-heavy offices, and hospitality, this is worth planning for. If you currently put plastic film in general waste, separating it from 2027 cuts your residual waste tonnage – which lowers cost as well as carbon. Talk to us 6–12 months ahead so we can quote a balanced contract that reflects the lower residual volume.

The Environment Agency leads enforcement against non-compliant businesses. Its toolkit, in escalating order, looks like this:

• Compliance notice – a formal letter requiring you to put compliant arrangements in place by a deadline. Ignoring it is itself an offence.
• Cost-recovery charges – the Agency now bills £118 per hour of officer time spent investigating non-compliance. A multi-site investigation can run into thousands.
• Fixed penalties – for specific offences such as failing to keep Waste Transfer Notes.
• Prosecution under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 – rare, but available for wilful or repeat breaches; fines have no upper limit at Crown Court.

In practice, most businesses caught by a routine inspection are given a compliance notice and a sensible deadline. The trigger for harder enforcement is usually missing paperwork rather than the bin set-up itself, so make sure you keep your Waste Transfer Notes for at least two years.

We run Simpler-Recycling-compliant rounds across all 32 London boroughs. A typical small-business set-up looks like this:

• 240-litre or 360-litre wheelie bins per stream, sized to your weekly volume after a free site audit.
• 23-litre lockable food caddies for kitchens, with a 240-litre external food waste bin for collection.
• Weekly food waste rounds (legally required) plus fortnightly mixed dry recyclables and glass.
• One contract, one invoice, one phone number – no separate carrier per stream.
• Waste Transfer Note emailed within 24 hours of every collection – your duty-of-care record stays current.
• Annual recycling-rate and tonnage report for sustainability or ESG submissions.

For one-off needs – a non-compliant supplier you need to replace mid-contract, an office move, a sudden audit – we can step in within a few days. Call 08 00 599 99 96 or send a photo of your current bin set-up on WhatsApp for a same-day quote.