The time has come to get simpler with your recycling.
New rules for business recycling on March 31
Calling all businesses in the borough – the time has come to get simpler with your recycling.
From March 31, new government rules mean that firms and workplaces are now obliged to recycle items such as paper, card and plastics in a bid to cut down on waste.
Fortunately, Eastleigh Borough Council’s (EBC’s) commercial waste team are here to help your business to go green and do your bit for the local environment.
Firms and workplaces are required to separate out:
- Dry recyclable materials such as plastic, metal, glass, paper and card
- Food waste
- Black bin waste or residual waste.
Eastleigh Borough Council provides a separate container for glass and another container for metals such as foil, cans and empty aerosols, plastics such as washed food trays, cartons, pots and plastic bottles and paper such as cardboard and old newspapers/magazines.
Food waste must be put into a separate food waste container and *black bin* waste such as contaminated food packaging and nappies must go into the general waste bin. also be separated into different containers.
Any business or workplaces that generate waste resembling household waste must follow these rules.
Workplaces affected by these changes include offices, hospitality businesses, charities, places of worship, care homes and residential hostels.
For collections, you need to separate glass from other dry recyclable items such as plastic, metal and paper/cardboard.
Firms must always separate dry recyclable waste, food waste and black bin waste.
Micro firms (workplaces those employing less than ten full-time members of staff) are exempt from the new rules until 31 March, 2027 but need to be compliant by that date.
Micro-firms are workplaces with less than 10 full-time employees in total. This relates to the total number of full time or full-time equivalent employees in a business, rather than in a certain business location.
For example, if a business has 3 locations with 5 employees in each location, they have a total of 15 employees and need to comply with Simpler Recycling from 31 March 2025. For counting part-time employees, add a fraction based on their pro-rated hours.
Firms which do not comply with the new rules are at risk of receiving a compliance note from the Environmental Agency.
Enforcement action can be taken against those who fail to comply. From April, 2025, the public will also be able to report workplaces that do not follow the new rules to the Environment Agency.
Cllr Rupert Kyrle, EBC’s Cabinet Member for the Environment, said: “The local environment is extremely important to both residents and local businesses in Eastleigh, as well as to those who visit the borough each year.
“The council is committed to improving the environment in the borough and these new rules will help us achieve this goal. Our waste management team are always available to help local firms comply with their legal obligations and provide an excellent level of service for businesses, both large and small.”