Food and garden waste<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Paper and card<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Dry recyclable materials – plastic, metal glass<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Non-recyclable waste, known as \u2018residual waste\u2019<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Scotland, Ireland and Wales are introducing their own schemes to reduce the amount of waste which is not being recycled.<\/p>\n
How many bins will you need?<\/p>\n
All households and waste collectors will collect food and garden waste, paper, dry recyclable materials and non-recyclable waste separately – meaning up to three bins plus food waste.<\/p>\n
![\"Refuse](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/19dcea10-e7e5-11ef-bf9e-1475c322afe9.jpeg\"\/)
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Recycling in England is about to change forever (Getty)<\/p>\n
There will be mandatory weekly food recycling<\/a> collections in every council area.<\/p>\n All households will also receive the same waste collection services, rather than this varying by council.<\/p>\n The government hopes that the simplified guidelines will help households to understand what can and cannot be recycled.<\/p>\n Local authorities will still be able to decide whether (for example) plastic, metal and glass are collected separately or together.<\/p>\n Some have suggested that this will mean households could have as many as five or six bins if authorities insist on separating dry recycling<\/a> such as paper, plastic and metal.<\/p>\n Who will this affect?<\/p>\n Businesses with 10 or more employees must separate their waste from March 31, 2025, and this also applies to \u2018non domestic premises\u2019 such as schools and hospitals.<\/p>\n Households must comply by March 31, 2026, while micro-businesses with fewer than 10 employees have until March 31, 2027.<\/p>\n What will it mean for how much waste is recycled?<\/p>\n The government hopes that Simpler Recycling will contribute towards a goal of recycling <\/a>65% of municipal waste by 2035.<\/p>\n Recycling in England has got worse in recent years, with the rate of recycling dropping to 43.4% in 2022 from 44.1% in 2021 – the lowest it has been for at least eight years, according to statistics from Defra<\/a>.<\/p>\n The situation is better in other parts of the UK, with 56.9% of household waste recycled in Wales and 49.2% in Northern Ireland. Scotland’s recycling rate (42.1%) is even worse than England’s.<\/p>\n The UK’s recycling rates are fairly average compared to other European countries. Germany is streets ahead of other nations, with recycling rates of nearly 70%.<\/p>\n The Simpler Recycling scheme will work in parallel with a new Deposit Return scheme which aims to reduce can and bottle waste as part of a push to deliver greenhouse gas emissions savings equivalent to \u00a311.8 billion in England.<\/p>\n British people will be paid to recycle plastic and metal bottles and cans under a new bottle-return scheme set to come into force in 2027.<\/p>\n Members of the public pay a deposit on drinks bottles, which is then refunded when bottles are turned in for recycling.<\/p>\n In England, Northern Ireland and Scotland, consumers buy an estimated 30 billion single-use drinks containers each year \u2013 including 12 billion plastic drinks bottles and 13 billion drinks cans.<\/p>\n Read more<\/strong><\/p>\n How much of your recycling is actually recycled? <\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n