The food waste countdown is on! In just six months time, the next stage of the Simpler Recycling reforms comes into effect—marking a significant milestone for local authorities across England. From April 2026, all councils will be required to offer regular food waste collections from households. This isn’t just a legislative box-tick – it’s a major step toward reducing methane emissions, diverting organic waste from landfill, and aligning nationwide recycling services. For local authorities, the clock is ticking to ensure the right infrastructure, communications, and supply chains are in place to meet both the deadline and public expectations.
So with less than 6 months to go? Where do you start?
Step 1: Get Yourself a Food Waste Caddy
The first step of implementation will be providing residents with a receptacle or bin to capture their waste within. Typically for households, this would be a food caddy, a smaller, but sufficiently sized bin, which can fit neatly on a kitchen counter top or tucked away in the cupboard. Much like the general waste bins you find in most kitchens, this food caddy will be used to collect scraps, leftovers and peelings separately. When a new scheme is rolled out, such as a new form of collection, participation rates are always far more successful when the correct equipment is provided, it makes it easier for both residents and the waste team.
Top tip: Choose one with a tight-fitting lid to keep odours at bay and flies on the outside where they belong.
Step 2: Line Your Caddy
Provide residents with a waste sack to line the caddy, these help to keep the caddies clean and hygienic, and allow for a simple method of collection and containment without mess and spillages.
Popular choices for the caddy liners, are polythene or compostable. The right choice for your waste management strategies would likely come down to the end-of-life solution for this waste. If it is being sent to a composting facility, where the bag can break down alongside the content, a compostable liner is a great option. Whereas if it is being sent to anaerobic digestion, where it will get debagged, provide your residents with a polythene caddy liner. Cromwell can supply both options.
Step 3: Provide Guidance, Instructions & Top Tips
The above two steps will help ensure a successful implementation, but now you need to focus on the overall success of recycling as a whole. We want the best recycling rates for all our strategies, whether this is dry mixed recycling or garden waste; the less contamination, the better. So when we implement a new waste collection, it is important that users know what can and cannot be put in these bins.
Provide your residents with a helpful guide on the do’s and don’ts of food waste recycling. A key component is what items should be avoided, which will help reduce contamination rates. This can be done via leaflets, website posts, social media content, or even printed on the bags, which will help residents understand the instructions at a glance.
Step 4: Track Your Success
With anything new, there may be a few bumps in the road or hurdles to overcome, which is why it is essential to carefully track your success rates for the first few This will help you identify any issues with the current method, which can be amended to help aid future success. As an example, if you see a lot of contamination in your recycling of one particular item e.g. teabags, it would be worth highlighting to the residents that this cannot be recycled, in the hopes this will rectify the behaviour.
It would also be beneficial to share successes and milestones with the residents, so they know their efforts are not going unnoticed.
Need help?
6 months is plenty of time to get a plan together, whether it is dusting up on current ideas or even starting from scratch and our team can help. Whether it is advising on which bag is best for you and your residents, or providing a bespoke solution to line the caddies with the instructions clearly printed, contact our friendly team today. Get Simpler Recycling ready with Cromwell!