Nearly two-thirds of FJL's food waste collections started after Simpler Recycling

Simpler Recycling has changed food waste collection faster than any other stream. 63% of the food waste collections FJL Waste Services runs today started on or after 31 March 2025, the day the rules took effect for businesses in England. The figure comes from our Commercial Waste Report 2026, published today, which draws on FJL's scheduled service records for October 2026.

What the data shows

FJL runs 211 food waste services across London, Surrey and the Thames Valley. New food waste services went from 27 started in 2024 to 91 in 2025, more than three times as many. In each of the three years before that, new food waste starts stayed in single figures.

The 63% is a snapshot, not a growth rate. It takes the food waste collections running now and counts them by the date each one started. It does not adjust for services that started and later stopped. What it does show is plain enough: most of the food waste collections we run today did not exist before the rules came in.

Why the rules moved food waste first

From 31 March 2025, businesses and other workplaces in England with 10 or more full time equivalent employees must separate food waste, dry recyclables and residual waste. Plenty of offices, shops and restaurants already had a recycling bin of some kind. Far fewer had ever separated food. For many of them, food was the one stream they had to add from scratch, which is why it shows up so clearly in the start dates.

Micro-firms with fewer than 10 full time equivalent employees have until 31 March 2027. We expect the next rise in new food waste services to come from small cafes, takeaways and offices as that date gets closer.

Food waste is still a small share of the bins

Food waste is 4% of the bins emptied on FJL's scheduled rounds. General waste is 56%, paper and card 31% and glass 7%. Across those rounds we make about 195,000 scheduled collection visits a year and empty around 7,400 bins a week.

That gap matters more than the headline. More than half the bins we empty are still general waste. In a kitchen, every caddy of food kept out of the general waste bin is heavy, wet weight taken out of the general waste bin, and food sealed in a caddy on a short cycle is far less likely to draw pests.

What to check now

• If you have 10 or more full time equivalent employees, check that food waste, dry recyclables and general waste are each collected separately, and that your waste transfer notes show it.
• If you have fewer than 10, plan the food waste stream well before 31 March 2027 rather than in the final month.
• Size the food bin to what the kitchen actually produces, and set a frequency that stops food sitting in the bin store.