Scotland has been for a long time one of the leaders in pushing sustainable waste disposal and recycling. Their plastic bag charges were a year ahead England’s. Their recycling targets? Closely followed. Now, they’re taking an even bigger step in working towards a circular economy, by enforcing new Recycling Legislation relating to food waste. These changes came into play on the 1st of January, 2016.

Here’s what you need to know:

What is changing in Scotland?

From the 1st of January, food businesses in non-rural areas of Scotland will need to legally start having their food waste collected separately for recycling if they produce more than 5kg of it per week (previously set at 50kg).

Regulations on recycling have been in place for over a year in Scotland already, meaning that Scottish businesses are already required to separate their key materials such as plastic, paper cardboard etc.

Failing to meet the new requirements could lead to fines of up to £10,000. This new legislation aims to crack down on the amount of food waste that gets wrongly thrown into either general waste bins or contaminates recycling bins.

Eleanor Strain from the SEPA National waste unit said:

“Feedback from local authority compliance inspections this summer indicates that smaller businesses and in particular, ethnic minority food outlets are more likely to be failing to recycle.  We were keen to find out the issues behind this behaviour. We also want to ensure that smaller businesses are not unfairly disadvantaged and are aware of what is required of them.”

Scottish-food-business

Does this apply to you?

The new legislation applies only to Scottish business, who process, distribute, prepare or sell food, are not in a rural location and produce over 5kg of food waste weekly.

What can we do to help?

Here at Direct365, we offer efficient and reliable food waste collections, to ensure you’re staying within the confines of the law. Our food waste collections put the environment front of mind, sending the waste to Anaerobic Digestion (AD) plants where your waste is used to generic energy and is recycled in an environmentally friendly manner.

Find out more about our food waste recycling here..

Back