Recycling in restaurants 

Hi all,

I'm doing a university project on recycling in London restaurants and was wondering if anyone knew what the laws were on how much recycling is required of restaurants and bars. The project came about as there were lots of stories about bad recycling practices in London. In particular if anyone has any personal experience of restaurants or bars that are known to be bad at recycling that would be really useful.

Thank-you for your help.

Small restaurants and bars/cafes are not allowed to use the household bring banks. This would probably suit them better than having the huge commitment of a contract. This stifles the initiative of their workers who would recycle. 

Most waste companies provide huge wheeled containers which it can be very difficult to find space for. With glass still a good price it is a shame that bottles are not returnable any more. Instead there are lorries making special trips to empty commercial waste bins rather than a lorry delivering and collecting a crate or two at the same time. Find a small cafe owner/bar owner and see what they say! Conscience or legislation - which do you follow?

There is a difference between household and commercial recycling/waste collections. Households pay towards theirs in their Council Tax. Businesses don't. Businesses therefore are not supposed to use those services. You should find someone who does recycle well to find out more about it from their point of view. There also were/are problems with meat in the food waste. Letsrecycle.com may find you some collectors from those who want to/do recycle. It is a great shame that so much glass is not recycled. 

Small bars and restaurants as such do not have to have recycle, however the larger organisations that have over 2 million pounds in turnover and more than 50 tonnes if packaging waste, must contact the environment agency and work out how much packaging they are obligated to recycle. This is quite a complicated process, however this means that they effectively pay towards the recycling of packaging that they put onto the market. I hope this helps, for more information on packaging regulations please see http://www.valpak.co.uk/nav/page1542.aspx. the recycle-more team