New Food Waste Rules For Local Businesses
Food businesses must present food waste for separate collection if you regularly produce more than 50kg of food waste per week
A food business is any business that carries out activities related to the processing, distribution, preparation or sale of food. This includes restaurants and cafes, shopping and food courts, canteens, hotels, pubs that serve food, shops that serve food, supermarkets, schools and colleges, prisons, nursing homes and hospitals.
Food waste obligations
If you are a food business then you must be prepared to present food waste for separate collection:
- by 1 April 2016 for those producing more than 50kg of food waste per week
- by 1 April 2017 for those producing between 5kg and 50kg of food waste per weekand Health and Social Care trusts
To help you calculate how much food waste your businesses is generating a 120 litre bin holds approximately 60kg of food waste and 5kg is roughly equivalent of a full domestic kitchen food waste caddy.
New duties for businesses in Northern Ireland.
Exempt businesses
Your businesses are exempt from the regulations if:
- You produce less than 5kg of food waste per week.
- You deal with catering waste that has arisen from international transport. International is a Category 1 Animal By-product and therefore requires specialist management.
There is a prohibition on the landfilling of separately collected food waste from 1 April 2015. The regulations also introduce a duty on businesses to ensure food waste is not deposited in a lateral drain or sewer from 1 April 2017.
Food waste recycling for your business.
