An environmental Question

The law in England is changing to make it mandatory for businesses to segregate waste, which we mostly do. However, it now also includes food wastes. We don’t prepare food, but obviously employees bring in their lunch and there is bound to be a bit of this that is wasted and put into general rubbish.

Now in Wales, they state you only need to segregate it if it is 5Kg or more. Varying web sites seem to suggest it is the same in England, but I can’t find anything on the Gov, web site or in the legislation that states this. Is anyone aware of any official guidance one way or another.

Yes, obviously it would be best to segregate it anyway but each of our places only has a relatively small number of people and so may not produce anywhere near 5kg per week. I would rather not have a bin which may only have just the crusts off someone’s sandwich or a bit of pasty that fell on the floor etc in it.

Looking for any pointer to guidance for England that covers this. A long shot I know.

Thanks Chris

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/simpler-recycling-workplace-recycling-in-england

The real problem is are the dry recyclables actually recyclable or contaminated due to food contact?

Unfortunately, I had already looked at that link and there is no mention of any quantity of food being exempt in England. It also is not clear if every scrap of food waste must be recycled. We do already segregate plastic and card etc for direct work purposes.

My understanding is the law applies to waste that can be recycled, but it is widely known that you can’t recycle food contaminated waste.  Same rules at home ( I do wash plastic waste at home in leftover washing up water). So plastic drinks bottles are easy and anything contaminated in the general waste unless it is readily able to be washed.

I did find something on the internet that suggested that most companies generate 5kg of food waste so it will apply to all businesses anyway. However again not an official source.

Chris

Two links in that guidance - one to the Environmental Protection Act (link as legislation) and one to the WRAP website https://businessofrecycling.wrap.ngo/

On the landing page for England: There is also no minimum food waste weight before the new regulations apply.

Hi Chris

I confess to not having read this legislation too closely but it makes provision for the Minister to make Regulations and issue Guidance.

My guess is that some point there will be Regulations that define the minimum scope of the Act, which minimum might vary depending on which nation it applies to.

I also suspect that some Guidance will come, though possibly not before the implementation date.

However, the underresourced regulators are not going to be chasing businesses for failing to recycle tiny quantities of food waste for I suppose at least 5 years, not least as the prosecution for mixing 2kg of food waste into the non recyclable waste would probably irritate the Magistrates big time!

I think there will come a point when supermarkets and others decide that it is time to rethink the packaging of your sandwich, but I guess that they will do this more to respond to customer pressure than legislative requirements.

As an aside, cooked food waste CAN be composted. Just needs the right method. So for the small scale you are talking about see e.g.  How to compost cooked food - Zero Waste Week

Originally Posted by: chris42

The intent is to have food waste bins for the orange peal and tea bags etc

https://www.recyclenow.com/how-to-recycle/plastic-in-tea-bags-can-you-recycle-them

When you start to consider how items are manufactured you start to realise how little you actually know.

A compost bin (instead of a heap) doesn't take up much space and the mice can't get in (only the worms do).

There are some draft Regulations knocking around at the moment and the last I heard, it was likely some exemptions would be put in place, but we have to wait to hear.