Why your food and drinks manufacturing business needs to recycle

New regulations will soon require your business to separate recyclable materials from your general waste, and in this guide, we’ll explain what to do to prepare. You have until 31 March 2025 if you have ten or more full-time equivalent employees, and until 31 March 2027 deadline if you have fewer than ten.

In this step, we’ll cover:

• The benefits of recycling

• The benefits of reducing food waste

• How to comply with the new legislation

• Checklist: what your business needs to do

Before we get into the details, let’s take a quick look at the background and how recycling can help your business.

Good to know

‘Waste’ means any substance or object to be discarded. This includes household materials for disposal (rubbish, in other words!) and recycling. New regulations mean that similar materials produced by businesses now need to be separated for recycling. If you use part of your home to run your food or drink business, any waste from that part of it also counts as business waste.