Guide
Who enforces workplace recycling, and what a compliance notice means
Updated
Enforcement here does not start with a fine. It starts with a notice, and the interesting question is who that notice lands on.
The mechanism
gov.uk states that if you do not comply with the requirements by 31 March 2025, or 31 March 2027 for micro-firms, you are at risk of receiving a compliance notice from the Environment Agency. It then states that it is an offence to fail to comply with a compliance notice and that enforcement action may be taken in line with the Environment Agency's Enforcement and Sanctions policy (gov.uk). The notice is the first step, not the penalty.
Who a notice can be served on
This is the sentence to read carefully. gov.uk states that compliance notices can also be issued against anyone who is not separating waste in agreement with their waste collector, that this will often be the waste producers, for example the business, but that it may also be the landlords or facilities management companies that are presenting waste on behalf of the waste producer. If you run a multi-let building, a serviced office or a managed estate, you are inside the enforcement perimeter even though the waste is not yours.
Collectors are enforced against too
- Compliance notices can be issued against a waste collector, excluding a waste collection authority, that is not complying with the rules.
- Collectors must not later mix waste that has been separated for recycling with other waste streams.
- Where a landlord employs a waste company for occupiers, gov.uk states that company has a legal obligation to make sure separately collected dry recyclables are sent for recycling and non-recyclable waste is correctly managed.
- Paper and card must be collected separately from plastic, metal and glass unless the collector completes a written co-collection assessment. Ask to see it if your collector co-collects.
How breaches come to light
gov.uk publishes a route for anyone to report a workplace or private waste collector that is not following these rules to the Environment Agency (gov.uk). In practice that means staff, tenants, neighbours and competitors, not only inspectors. On contamination specifically, gov.uk states the Environment Agency will take a pragmatic and proportionate approach, which is a different posture from the one it takes to having no food waste stream at all.
We do not publish penalty figures for Simpler Recycling because the gov.uk guidance does not state any. It describes compliance notices and the offence of failing to comply with one, and points to the Environment Agency's Enforcement and Sanctions policy. Any specific fine figure you see quoted elsewhere for this regime is worth tracing back to a source before you rely on it.