What’s changed?
In Wales, it's a legal requirement to separate all waste streams including:
- Food
- Paper and card
- Glass
- Metal, plastic and cartons
- Unsold textiles
- Unsold small waste electrical and electronic equipment (sWEEE)
“Every organisation and business has a Duty of Care (a legal responsibility) for waste they generate.”
Under the Waste (England and Wales) Regulation, every waste producer in Wales has a legal responsibility to ensure it produces, stores, transports and disposes of controlled waste without harming the environment. Food businesses in particular have a Duty of Care to ensure their food waste does not contaminate any of their other waste streams that can be recycled.
As of April 6th 2024, businesses in Wales have to separate all waste streams, including food waste that weighs 5kg or more. Scotland has been separating food waste under the law since 2014 and “The Simpler Recycling Reform” will be coming to England in 2025.
The rules have changed - Waste (England and Wales) Regulations
Working towards its waste strategy document, Towards Zero Waste, the Welsh Government have introduced these changes to ensure waste producing businesses present metal, glass, paper, card and food waste for separate collections so they can be recycled.
Who does the latest change affect?
The duty to segregate the key dry recyclables for collection applies to all Welsh waste producers (excluding households), while only Welsh food businesses are affected by the regulations to separate food waste. A food business is defined as ‘an undertaking, whether for profit or not and whether public or private, carrying out any activity related to the processing, distribution, preparation or sale of food’.
Examples of food businesses
- Restaurants
- Cafes
- Hotels
- Schools and colleges
- Nursing homes
- Public houses that sell food
- Hospitals
- Supermarkets
- Prisons
What happens if you don’t comply?
It has become law from 6th April 2024 and any person who fails without reasonable excuse to comply with the duties imposed above may be liable to a fine issued by National Resource Wales.
In addition:
- Your waste may no longer be collected
- You could incur extra collection costs
- You might be missing out on potential cost savings
How can Olleco help?
Olleco is a leading specialist in food waste management so can ensure your business complies with the new legislation. Whether you are part of a group or an independent food business, we can develop a food waste collection service to suit you, not to mention we often help our customers save money by reducing their existing collection costs.
To help you adjust to the law change we offer detailed training to you and your employees and provide clearly labelled food waste bins. We can supply you with a range of bin sizes to meet any space limitations you may have and every bin is kept clean and odour free by replacing the bin liner after every collection. Once collected, your bins will be weighed on board our vehicles so you can track how much we are collecting and you will be given a Waste Transfer Note to ensure your compliance. We have a dedicated fleet of specialist food waste collection vehicles operating across the length and breadth of Wales so we may already be going past your door!
Your business could benefit from Olleco’s expertise in food waste collection whilst supporting the environment and helping Wales meet its carbon reduction targets