New Bin Rules Come Into Force in England, but Not All Councils Are Ready

New regulations requiring weekly food waste collections for all households across England have officially come into effect, although many councils are still not fully prepared to deliver the service.

An earlier BBC investigation found that 79 English councils—around one in four—did not expect to meet the 31 March deadline for implementation.

Local authorities have cited delays in sourcing specialist vehicles and funding challenges, despite the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs allocating more than £340 million in grants to support the rollout.

The department said it will continue working with local authority waste networks and industry partners, offering targeted support to resolve outstanding issues.

Environmental group WRAP described the new Simpler Recycling rules as “the biggest shake-up in recycling policy in England in 20 years.”

When collected separately, food waste can be converted into energy, helping generate electricity while reducing landfill waste and greenhouse gas emissions.

Officials also hope that introducing universal food waste collection will encourage households to reduce food waste at the source.

According to Defra’s Simpler Recycling guidance, from 31 March, waste collectors must collect the following separately:

• Food and garden waste
• Paper and card – although depending on where you live, this can be grouped with other dry recyclables
• All other dry recyclable materials (glass, metal and plastic, including cartons)
• Residual waste – this is the rubbish that cannot be recycled and so is sent to landfill or for energy recovery

Roughly half of councils were not collecting food waste weekly before the creation of the new legislation, while some have had the collections in place for more than a decade.

This meant not all councils needed to make changes to meet the new rules, but the BBC approached each local authority responsible for waste collection to find out what was happening in their area.

At least 57 of the councils who told the BBC that they would miss the deadline aim to launch their service for all households by the end of 2026. More than a dozen could not give an approximate start date.

A further 31 councils had secured agreements allowing for a later start date for their weekly food collections, so will not be viewed as missing the deadline.

These transitional agreements allow them to delay the introduction, in some cases for more than a decade, because they are locked into existing contracts which would be too costly to change.

Claire Shrewsbury, director of insights and innovation at Wrap said the new rules would mean that “wherever you are you’ll have the same service at home, at work, and when out and about”.

She said: “We’re a nation of recyclers, but most households put two or more items in the rubbish each week that could be recycled – because of confusion.

“Food waste is where we’ll see the big win. It’s difficult to prevent all food waste and so recycling one kitchen caddy of unavoidable food waste could power your fridge for 18 hours, and a whole truck would keep that fridge cool for five years.”

Ashley, a refuse worker in south-east England, is known to fans on social media as the No1 Binman.

He said maggots and flies were attracted to food left in general waste bins as they tended to be collected less often.

Recommending taking your food recycling bin out every week, he said lining a food caddy meant food waste was less likely to get congealed and sticky.

He said: “If you leave waste for a couple of days, it sticks to the bottom. Then you’re the one having to scoop it out. Most councils allow you to use newspaper at the bottom of your food recycling.”

Ashley said biodegradable bags could also help, adding that food recycling was for solids only, not for milk or sauces.

Defra said if waste collection authorities did not comply with their statutory duties, they risked judicial review – but as independent bodies, councils were accountable to their electorate rather than ministers or government departments.

It said more than two thirds of councils were ready for the recycling changes to come into effect and they had been empowered to deliver services in the best way for their local communities.