Guidance

Consistent Collections

Published: 09 September 2026 Updated: 31 October 2024

Topics

Environmental sustainability Food waste

Understand the obligations on local authorities, as well as business and other non-household municipal premises, for collections of recyclable waste for each of the four nations of the UK.

Collection Consistency is one of the three policies, alongside Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), collectively known as the ‘Collection and Packaging Reforms’. Collection Consistency is being pursued separately in each of the four UK nations.

What does Collection Consistency involve?

  1. Collection of a nationally agreed set of packaging materials for recycling from households, businesses and other non-domestic settings.
  2. Adoption of minimum service standards.
  3. Delivery of good-quality recyclate.

By reducing confusion for consumers and increasing the range of materials and formats collected, collection consistency is expected to improve the supply of recyclates in terms of both quantity and quality.

In turn, this should help producers meet their recycling obligations under the packaging EPR system and create a circular economy where more packaging is recycled and can be turned back into food-grade packaging.

The scope of collection consistency also extends to the collection of food and garden waste.

There are currently no legal obligations for recyclability labelling under packaging EPR, and the Recyclability Assessment Methodology does not contain labelling guidance.

Given the interdependency between collection consistency and EPR, it is important that policies are aligned across the four UK nations in terms of materials in scope, format and implementation timeframes.

England

In October 2023, following two previous consultations, the UK Government announced new requirements for consistency of collections of recyclable materials from households and workplaces in England under the branding Simpler Recycling. Workplaces include businesses, charities and public-sector organisations that generate waste similar in nature and composition to household waste. The workplace requirements have applied to most workplaces since 31 March 2025.

The aim is to ensure that all local authorities and other waste collectors across England collect the same set of recyclable waste from households and workplace premises.

The rules require dry recyclable waste, food waste and non-recyclable waste to be collected separately. The materials included in the dry recyclable stream are as follows:

  • Glass, including bottles and jars.
  • Metal, including aluminium and steel tins, cans, jars, bottle lids, aerosols, aluminium trays, foil and tubes.
  • Paper and card, subject to the exclusions in Schedule 1. The exclusions include fibre-based composites with more than 15% non-paper fibre by weight, as well as certain formats irrespective of fibre share, including double-sided plastic laminates and fibre-based composite cups.
  • Plastic, including bottles, pots, tubs, trays and tubes made of PET, PP, LDPE or HDPE, as well as cartons. Specified polyolefin plastic-film packaging and plastic bags remain a later-phase material.

Schedule 1 to the Separation of Waste (England) Regulations 2024 contains the fuller list of materials that must be collected.

Plastic, metal and glass may be co-collected. Paper and card must normally be collected separately from the other dry recyclable materials; a waste collector may co-collect it only after a written assessment demonstrates that separate collection is not technically or economically practicable, or has no significant environmental benefit. Food and garden waste may also be co-collected. These exemptions are given legal effect by the Separation of Waste (England) Regulations 2025.

Workplaces have a legal duty to present their waste separately in accordance with the collection arrangements agreed with their waste collector. Waste collectors have a legal duty to collect dry recyclable materials and food waste separately from non-recyclable waste from both workplaces and households.

Defra guidance confirms that the workplace rules cover waste generated by employees, customers and visitors and apply to premises including manufacturing facilities, warehouses, retail and wholesale businesses, and hospitality venues. Packaging labelled compostable or biodegradable must not be put in the food-waste or ordinary dry-recycling streams; it should be treated as non-recyclable waste or placed in a dedicated collection.

Implementation deadlines for Simpler Recycling

  • Since 31 March 2025: businesses and relevant non-domestic premises have had to arrange separate collection of dry recyclables (except plastic films) and food waste. Micro-firms with fewer than 10 full-time-equivalent employees remain temporarily exempt until 31 March 2027.
  • Since 31 March 2026: local authorities have been required to collect the core dry recyclable streams and food waste from households, subject to agreed transitional arrangements for some local authorities.
  • By 31 March 2027: micro-firms must comply with the workplace requirements.

Plastic-film position: the current regulations still specify 31 March 2027 for mandatory household and workplace collection of the specified polyolefin plastic-film packaging and plastic bags. In July 2026, Defra announced its intention to defer that requirement to 1 April 2030. At the date of this review, the regulations had not yet been amended, so the 2030 date should be treated as the announced policy timetable pending legislation.

Wales

To support delivery of statutory recycling targets, the Welsh Government provides guidance to local authorities through its Collections Blueprint, most recently updated in June 2025. The statutory local-authority recycling target is 70% from 2024/25.

The Welsh Government directly supports local authorities through funding and guidance. Local authorities risk financial penalties if they fail to achieve the statutory target.

The Welsh Government also provides technical support to local authorities through WRAP Cymru and administers funding to support local and regional infrastructure.

Since 6 April 2024, the Waste Separation Requirements (Wales) Regulations 2023 have required non-domestic premises to present specified recyclable waste streams separately. Hospitals were subject to a transitional exemption and became subject to the presentation duty on 6 April 2026.

The required streams are:

  • Food waste, for premises that produce more than 5 kg of food waste a week.
  • Paper and card.
  •  
  • Metal, plastic, cartons and similar fibre-based composite packaging.
  • Unsold small waste electrical and electronic equipment (sWEEE).
  • Unsold textiles.

The regulations prohibit waste that has been separately collected for recycling from being sent to landfill or incineration. Most separately collected textiles may still be incinerated, but unsold textiles may not; all wood waste is prohibited from landfill.

For household collections, the 2025 Collections Blueprint continues to recommend weekly kerbside-sort collections of dry recyclables and food waste. It also says that the planned kerbside collection of flexible plastic films from 2027 onwards should be taken into account.

Northern Ireland

In March 2024, the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) consulted on proposals for consistent collection of dry recyclables from domestic and business premises through Rethinking Our Resources: Measures for Climate Action and a Circular Economy in Northern Ireland.

That consultation closed in June 2024 and the proposals have not yet been implemented in legislation. In January 2026, DAERA launched a further consultation on a draft Northern Ireland Resources and Waste Management Strategy, including actions to increase the quantity and quality of household and business recycling. The strategy consultation closed on 6 May 2026.

The 2024 proposals would require councils to collect a core set of dry recyclable materials within two years of notification of a statutory requirement, including:

  • Paper and card, including newspapers, cardboard packaging and writing paper.
  • Glass bottles and jars, including drinks bottles, condiment bottles, jars and their metal lids.
  • Metal packaging, including aluminium cans, foil, aerosols and tubes, and steel cans and aerosols.
  • Plastic bottles, including drinks bottles and detergent, shampoo and cleaning-product bottles, as well as pots, tubs, trays and cartons.

The proposed default collection method is four separate streams - paper and card, glass, metal and plastic - with councils required to undertake a technical, economic and environmental assessment if they wish to co-collect materials.

DAERA now states that it is not planning to mandate plastic-film collections for workplaces and households from March 2027, following Defra's intention to defer the English requirement. It continues to encourage Northern Ireland councils and other waste collectors to provide plastic-film collections voluntarily where practical.

Scotland

In 2015, the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities agreed a voluntary Household Recycling Charter to bring greater consistency to recycling services.

The Circular Economy (Scotland) Act 2024 requires ministers to prepare and publish a statutory code of practice for household waste recycling for local authorities. Building on the existing Charter, the Code will set standards for recycling and reuse services. The Act also provides powers to introduce household waste-recycling targets for local authorities from 2030.

In 2025, the Scottish Government began a formal co-design process with local government, businesses, waste processors and other stakeholders to develop the new statutory Code. The process is intended to take account of geographical and logistical differences across Scotland.

The Scottish Government's March 2026 Circular Economy Strategy confirms that co-design is continuing and that the draft household recycling Code is intended to be available for public consultation by the end of 2026. The Code will be introduced on a statutory basis after consultation; it has not yet been published in final form.

Separately, the updated Duty of Care Code of Practice introduces requirements for plastic-film collection from businesses and commercial premises from 31 March 2027 by clarifying that plastic film is included within dry recyclable plastic waste. Household plastic-film collections are to be addressed through the new statutory household recycling Code rather than the Duty of Care Code.

The materials to be collected, the default collection method and any collection-frequency requirements for households will therefore depend on the final statutory Code following consultation.

Further reading

The following official documents and guidance provide further detail. Hyperlinks are embedded in each title.