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New Bin Rules: What You Can & Can't Recycle
26 Mar
Summary
- National recycling and bin collection rules start March 31.
- Councils will collect kerbside food waste, plastics, glass, and paper.
- Incorrect recycling contaminates loads, causing rejection.
Starting Tuesday, March 31, new national regulations will govern recycling and bin collections. Local councils are now mandated to collect kerbside food waste, alongside plastics, glass, paper, and cardboard nationwide. This Simpler Recycling scheme aims to harmonize collection rules previously managed individually by each council across England and Wales.
Waste and recycling experts caution households to be aware of the updated guidelines to prevent contamination. Improperly sorted items can lead to entire recycling loads being rejected at sorting facilities. Analysis indicates approximately 525,000 tonnes of collected household recycling face rejection each year due to such errors.
To ensure effective recycling, Ryan Kaila from Kingfisher Direct advises specific practices. Households should remove food residue from packaging before disposal and place soiled pizza box sections into general waste. Clean sections of cardboard pizza boxes can be recycled. Leftover food should go into the new separate food waste bins introduced under these reforms.
