How to comply with existing waste legislation

As a business, you’re considered to have a ‘Duty of Care’ to ensure that the waste your business generates is produced, stored, transported and disposed of without harming the environment. This is set out in Article 5 of the Waste & Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997. 

Good to know Food waste recycling is already covered by its own regulations which requires food premises who produce 5kg or more per week of food waste to have to separate it for recycling. These regulations apply to businesses or organisations such as: hotels, restaurants, cafés, take-aways, catering businesses, shopping centre food courts, canteens, public houses, or shops that serve food, supermarkets, schools/colleges with canteens, prisons, nursing homes and hospitals.

Whilst not a current legal requirement the following materials are regularly collected for recycling from hospitality businesses:

• Glass, such as drinks bottles and rinsed empty food jars

• Metal, such as drinks cans and food tins, empty aerosols, foil and foil trays

• Plastic, such as empty plastic bottles, rinsed plastic pots, tubs and trays previously used for food packaging

• Paper and cardboard, such as newspapers, cardboard packaging and office paper

• Cartons for food, drinks and other liquids

• Food waste - such as leftovers or waste from food preparation

It is important to make sure you separate out the right materials and avoid contamination of your recycling by any non-recyclable materials such as for example, coffee cups.

Most disposable cups are made from paper and they have a waterproof lining. This lining is plastic (polyethylene). There are only a few recycling plants in the UK which have the technology to separate the different materials. Though while their make-up makes them tricky to recycle, it’s not impossible.

There is a caveat, however. You must dispose of them in designated cup recycling bins if you want to recycle them properly. Putting them in general waste bins or recycling bins for other waste streams will render them unrecyclable.  Read onto Step 2 for further guidance on coffee cup recycling.

As waste is a devolved matter, each of the four UK nations has slightly different requirements for recycling. If you’re responsible for managing waste in the workplace, visit our sister sites in Wales or England. There’s also similar guidance available for Scotland.