5 Surprising Ways Simpler Recycling Could Impact Your Business
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There always seems to be another bit of legislation for small business owners to get their heads around.
Some of it feels huge. Some of it seems like the sort of thing you can probably worry about another day.
Simpler Recycling is one that is worth paying attention to, though, because it changes the way businesses in England are expected to deal with their business waste, with the new rules simplifying recycling for workplaces in England
And it isn’t just something for large offices, restaurants or businesses producing huge amounts of rubbish.
The rules already apply to many workplaces and, from 31 March 2027, micro-firms with fewer than 10 full-time equivalent employees will also need to comply.
So if you’re running a small shop, an office with a couple of employees, a salon, café or another small business, this is something that could affect you sooner than you think.
Here are five things that might surprise you about the changes.
1. You may need more than one bin
This is probably the most obvious change, but it can still catch businesses out.
Under Simpler Recycling, workplaces need to separate three main waste streams before collection:
- dry recyclable materials
- food waste
- non-recyclable waste
Dry recyclables include things such as plastic, glass, metal, paper and cardboard.
That doesn’t necessarily mean your office suddenly needs six enormous industrial bins squeezed next to the photocopier.
The size and type of containers you use can depend on how much waste your business actually produces.
But it does mean the old system of putting pretty much everything into one general waste bin may no longer be enough.
For some businesses this will mean looking at where bins are positioned, how they’re labelled and whether staff actually know what goes where.
Which sounds very simple.
Until somebody puts their half-eaten lunch in the paper recycling.
2. Food waste counts even if you’re not a food business
This is one that will probably surprise a lot of smaller workplaces.
You don’t need to run a restaurant or café to produce food waste.
A banana skin from somebody’s lunch counts.
So do tea bags, coffee grounds, leftovers and food brought into work by employees.
Government guidance says workplaces must separate food waste even where only a small amount is produced.
So an office with a kettle, a fridge and five people eating lunch at their desks may suddenly need to think about food waste in a way they never have before.
And no, asking everybody to take their banana skins home isn’t really the solution.
3. Your customers’ rubbish can become your responsibility too
If customers or visitors use bins on your premises, their waste also falls within the rules.
That could matter particularly for cafés, salons, shops, leisure businesses, waiting rooms and anywhere else customers might throw something away.
Government guidance recommends providing separate recycling and food-waste bins in areas where customers are likely to generate those types of waste.
So this isn’t purely a back-office issue.
For some businesses, Simpler Recycling could affect the customer-facing side of the premises too.
And that’s where making things obvious becomes really important.
Nobody wants to stand staring at four bins wondering where their coffee cup goes.
Clear labels and sensible positioning are probably going to save quite a lot of confusion.
4. Small businesses haven’t escaped it — they’ve just been given longer
If you run a very small business, you may have heard about Simpler Recycling and assumed it didn’t apply to you.
That isn’t quite right.
Micro-firms — businesses with fewer than 10 full-time-equivalent employees — have been given until 31 March 2027 to comply.
And it’s worth noting that the employee count is across the whole business, not each individual site.
So if you had three locations with five employees in each, you wouldn’t be treated as a micro-firm simply because each branch had fewer than ten people working there.
That 2027 deadline probably feels a while away.
But it makes sense to look at your current waste setup before you’re suddenly trying to change everything at the last minute.
DCW has a useful Simpler Recycling guide for businesses covering the deadlines, how different waste streams need to be managed and what businesses should do to prepare.
5. Your waste provider is going to matter more than you might think
Most business owners aren’t spending much of their working day thinking about what happens after the bins are collected.
Understandably.
But Simpler Recycling makes your waste arrangements something worth looking at properly.
Businesses need to arrange collections for dry recycling, food waste and non-recyclable waste, and the company collecting it must be appropriately registered.
So this is a good time to speak to your existing provider.
Ask what they collect.
Ask how they want waste separated.
Ask whether your current bins are suitable.
And ask what will need to change before your particular deadline.
This is actually where the new rules could become less complicated rather than more.
A good waste provider should be able to help you understand the practical side rather than leaving you to work the whole thing out yourself.
It is probably better to sort it now than in March 2027
If you’re running a micro-business, there is no need to panic.
You still have time.
But this is exactly the sort of business admin that is easy to ignore until suddenly the deadline is six weeks away and you’ve got 14 other things happening at the same time.
Start with something simple.
Look at what waste your business currently produces.
Check how many employees you have for the purposes of the rules.
Speak to whoever currently collects your waste.
Then work out what, if anything, needs to change.
The official GOV.UK guidance is worth reading if you want the full legal position, particularly around separating waste and the micro-firm exemption.
Because Simpler Recycling sounds like one more thing to add to the small-business to-do list.
But once you’ve actually worked out which bins you need and who is collecting them, hopefully it can go back to being exactly what waste management should be.
Something running quietly in the background that you barely have to think about.