Report · 15 October 2026
Commercial Waste Report 2026: what London businesses bin
FJL Waste Services' Commercial Waste Report 2026 finds that Simpler Recycling has reshaped food waste collection. 63% of the food waste collections FJL runs today started on or after 31 March 2025, when the rules took effect for businesses in England, and new food waste services rose from 27 in 2024 to 91 in 2025.
The figures come from FJL's own scheduled service records across London, Surrey and the Thames Valley in October 2026: 1,065 businesses on scheduled collections, about 195,000 collection visits a year and around 7,400 bins emptied a week. They are free to cite with a link to this page.
Key findings
The report in four numbers.
63%
of the food waste collections FJL runs today started on or after 31 March 2025, when Simpler Recycling took effect.
27 to 91
new food waste services started in 2024, then in 2025. More than three times as many.
195,000
scheduled collection visits a year, approximately.
7,400
bins emptied a week, around 386,000 a year.
Food waste and Simpler Recycling
Food waste collections took off when the rules arrived.
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. Micro-firms with fewer than 10 have until 31 March 2027. The full rules are in our Simpler Recycling guide.
FJL runs 211 food waste services today. 63% of the food waste collections FJL runs today started on or after 31 March 2025. New food waste services went from 27 started in 2024 to 91 in 2025, more than three times as many.
Food waste services FJL runs today, counted by the year each one started.
- 4Started in 2021: 4 new food waste services
- 7Started in 2022: 7 new food waste services
- 4Started in 2023: 4 new food waste services
- 27Started in 2024: 27 new food waste services
- 91Started in 2025: 91 new food waste services
- 57Started in 2026 (to Oct): 57 new food waste services
Simpler Recycling took effect for businesses in England on 31 March 2025. The 2026 bar runs to October and is shown dashed because the year is not finished.
Need a food waste stream set up? See food waste collection.
What businesses throw away
More than half the bins we empty are general waste.
Of the bins emptied on FJL's scheduled rounds, 56% are general waste and 31% paper and card. Glass is 7% and food waste 4%.
October 2026.
- General waste56%
- Paper and card31%
- Glass7%
- Food waste4%
Shares are of bins emptied, not of weight, so this measures how often each stream is collected rather than how heavy it is.
Scale
What sits behind the figures.
- scheduled collection visits a year, approximately
- 195,000
- scheduled collection visits a year, approximately
- bins emptied a week, around 386,000 a year
- 7,400
- bins emptied a week, around 386,000 a year
- businesses on scheduled collections, October 2026
- 1,065
- businesses on scheduled collections, October 2026
A visit is one stop at one business on a scheduled round. Many visits empty more than one bin, which is why bins emptied run ahead of visits. See how we work across the capital on our London commercial waste page.
Methodology
Where the numbers come from.
- Source: FJL Waste Services' scheduled service records, October 2026.
- Figures are aggregated. No customer names, addresses or other customer data are published.
- Skip hire and one-off work are excluded. The figures cover scheduled bin collections only.
- Legacy records carrying placeholder start dates are excluded from the date-based figures (the share started since 31 March 2025, and new services by year).
- The food waste share is a snapshot of the services running in October 2026, counted by start date. It is not adjusted for services that started and later ended.
- The waste mix is the share of bins emptied on scheduled rounds, not the share by weight.
- These are FJL's own operational figures, not independently audited.
How to cite this report
Free to use with a link.
You are welcome to quote any figure on this page. Please credit FJL Waste Services and link to this page. Suggested citation:
FJL Waste Services (2026). Commercial Waste Report 2026: What London Businesses Bin. Published 15 October 2026. https://fjlwaste.co.uk/reports/commercial-waste-2026
Media enquiries, interviews and comment from our Managing Director, Frazer Lanagan: see our press and media page or call 0330 024 9180.
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