GATESHEAD, UK. July 15th, 2026 – Waste experts are warning small businesses to be prepared as new legislation around recycling comes into force next year.
Businesses employing between one and nine people in England will need to comply with Simpler Recycling requirements, including separate collections for dry recyclables, food waste, and residual waste, by 31 March 2027.
According to Better Waste Solutions, many businesses have no idea about the deadline and will need to take steps to meet the new laws within the next nine months.
Since 31 March 2025, businesses with ten or more employees have been legally required to separate their waste streams: plastic, metal, glass, paper, and card kept apart from food waste, and both apart from residual rubbish.
The legislation was always designed to extend to the smallest firms — it just gave them two additional years to prepare.
Under Simpler Recycling, all workplaces in England must arrange separate collections for three categories of waste. Dry recyclables cover the obvious: plastic bottles, cans, cardboard boxes, and envelopes. Food waste includes coffee grounds, tea bags, onion skins, and plate scrapings from a staff kitchen, even in offices that don’t serve food to customers. Non-recyclable waste goes separately.
The headcount that determines whether a business qualifies as a micro-firm is calculated across the whole organisation, not per site. A business with three locations and four staff at each is not a micro-firm — it has twelve employees and fell under the rules in March 2025.
Starting from 31 March 2027, the Environment Agency can use civil sanctions (including compliance notices) for certain waste offences.
Ignoring a compliance notice is a criminal offence, enforceable under the EA’s sanctions and enforcement policy. Waste collectors who fail to collect waste streams separately face their own notices.
No registration is required to use the current exemption but there is also no mechanism to extend it.
Better Waste’s research found that 72% of business leaders say they need more recycling solutions. “Willingness to recycle is prevalent,” said James Allgood from Better Waste Solutions.
“There just needs to be the opportunity to do so.”
