If Wales’ Workplace Recycling Scheme sets a precedent, enough extra food waste could be recycled in the next year to offset 8 million tonnes of CO2

• Businesses could offset 8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent following Simpler Recycling legislation
• The regulations have seen food waste become a mandatory recycling collection
• Based on the success of Wales’ similar Workplace Recycling Scheme, the experts predict that Simpler Recycling could cause food waste recycling rates to increase by two-thirds (67%)
• More than 695 MILLION smartphones could be charged with the extra energy generated from the waste
• It comes as Biffa launches its Simpler Recycling Food Waste Calculator, which shows businesses the tangible benefits of Simpler Recycling legislation and mandatory food waste collections

More than 8 million kilograms of extra carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) could be offset by Simpler Recycling legislation*, experts at sustainable waste management company Biffa predict.

Simpler Recycling – which became law on March 31^st – saw food waste collections become mandatory alongside the separation of other recycling materials.

Analysts at the firm have benchmarked the inflation against the success of the Welsh Workplace Recycling scheme, which saw Biffa’s food waste recycling volume increase by over two-thirds (67%).

Whilst the schemes differ in some respects, at the core of both pieces of legislation is mandatory food waste recycling for businesses. If Simpler Recycling is as successful as Workplace Recycling, Biffa’s experts say England could see a nearly 70% increase in volume of food waste recycled in the country.

The ramifications of the increase could see 8.6 million kilograms of CO2e offset by Biffa customers alone. When converted to energy via anaerobic digestion, that’s enough to charge over 695 million smartphones, power 1,155 homes for a year, or drive 21.9 million miles (that’s like driving the circumference of the earth 880 times).

The research comes as Biffa launches its Simpler Recycling Food Waste Calculatorto help businesses understand the positive sustainable impact that Simpler Recycling will have by mandating food waste recycling.

By selecting the size – and how full – their food waste bin typically is when it’s collected every week, businesses will discover how much food waste they generate in a year and what the energy equivalents generate in offset carbon, mobile phone charging and car mileage. Businesses also receive a tip to help them navigate Simpler Recycling based on their industry.

Just one standard wheelie bin full of food waste collected and converted to energy every week would see a business recycle 4,160kg of food waste, which, when converted to energy, offsets 863kg of carbon, charges 57,000 smartphones or could power a car to drive 2,207 miles (the equivalent of Lisbon to Warsaw).

Simpler Recycling is making it more crucial than ever before for businesses to understand the impact that food waste recycling can have. A 2024 survey** of English SMEs by Biffa found that more than two-fifths (42%) were unaware of the impact that the legislation, which affects any company with 10 or more employees, would have on their business.

Carla Brian, Head of Partnerships, explains that lessons can be learned from Wales’ Workplace Recycling scheme to show that Simpler Recycling will have a positive impact both on businesses and the planet:

“As of April last year, businesses in Wales were required to separate their materials into six containers, and the scheme has seen some impressive results. Between November 2023 and 2024, food waste volumes collected increased by 67% and total recycling volume by 34%.

“These results demonstrate that separation leads to higher material recovery. Less recyclable material is lost amongst the residual waste, while more organic waste is used to produce biogas. Despite Simpler Recycling requiring fewer bins than Wales’s mandated six, we expect to see a similarly positive impact as businesses adapt to the new legislation.”

Try Biffa’s Simpler Recycling Food Waste Calculator here: https://www.biffa.co.uk/biffa-insights/food-waste-calculator

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However, just over one in ten workers think food waste in their workplace is sent to Anaerobic Digestion (AD) plants. If separated into the right bin, food waste is sent to AD plants to produce biogas, which can be used to generate electricity.

The research found that despite people taking actions to reduce their food waste at lunch, with 37 per cent trying to buy smaller portion sizes, almost one in two people still find themselves throwing away part of their lunch in their workplace each week.

The main reasons for throwing away food at lunch was as a result of inedible food waste, such as banana skins or eggshells (45 per cent), busy schedules or plans changing (30 per cent), poor food quality (28 per cent), standard portion sizes too large (25 percent) and overordering (15 percent).

The findings emerge ahead of the forthcoming Simpler Recycling legislation where all businesses in England with 10 or more full-time employees will have to separate plastic, paper, card, glass, metals and food waste from general waste from 31st March 2025 or risk a fine.

Concerningly, 76 per cent of people who eat lunch in their workplace are still unaware of the Simpler Recycling scheme.

Maxine Mayhew, Chief Operating Officer, Biffa Collections and Specialist Services at Biffa, said:

“Food waste is a significant, but often overlooked issue in workplaces, with many unaware of its potential to generate renewable energy or even used for composting if properly recycled.

“It’s essential to separate food waste, not only to reduce contamination in dry mixed recycling, but to enable us to recycle it and recover energy. Energy which can be used to charge mobile phones or boil a kettle for example.

“The implementation of Simpler Recycling at the end of this month for businesses with ten or more full-time employees is a crucial step forward in managing waste more consistently and reducing confusion, whilst protecting the environment.

“However, it’s extremely worrying that less than one in four people who eat lunch in their workplace are aware of the scheme.”

The research, commissioned by Biffa, the UK’s leading sustainable waste management company, also found that 18 per cent of people are dissatisfied with their current recycling options at work, with four in ten not even having a separate food waste bin in their workplace.

77 per cent of people are concerned about the environmental impact of food waste, with 40 per cent of people believing that it is sent to landfill.

Food production and consumption produces 30 per cent of global carbon emissions. In the UK alone, food waste totalled 10.7 million tonnes in 2021. For every ten-litre caddy (4kg of food waste), 2.75kg of carbon is saved by streaming food waste through AD rather than using landfill.

Maxine added: “It’s clear from our research that there is an urgent need for businesses to improve food waste recycling ahead of Simpler Recycling, but wider awareness and education is also vital.

“Once separated, we can collect and transport food waste to one of our anaerobic digestion plants where it’s broken down and turned into biogas, which can be used to generate energy which is sent to the National Grid to power local homes and businesses.

“By making small changes, we can have an important positive impact on the environment and support a more sustainable future.”

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• Leading sustainable waste management company Biffa has partnered with food redistribution organisation Olio to further encourage businesses across the UK to move surplus food up the waste hierarchy

• The collaboration will see businesses able to prevent same-day surplus food from becoming waste as part of Biffa and Olio’s aligned mission to prevent food waste and enable the UK’s circular economy

• Through Olio’s platform, Biffa customers have been able to track the meals, water and emissions savings as a result of redistribution

• Olio’s Food Waste Heroes will see the on-site surplus get to the hands of those locally who need it, while businesses will benefit from consolidated surplus food and sustainable waste management services

Biffa has announced its partnership with Olio in the UK, an innovative food sharing app, to add same-day local food redistribution to its existing toolkit of surplus redistribution and sustainable waste management solutions.

Every year in the UK, billions of potential meals end up in the bin, while 11.3 million people struggle to feed themselves. Biffa’s new collaboration with Olio offers retail and hospitality businesses a unique opportunity to transform their on site surplus food into meaningful support for local communities.

Through this partnership, Biffa rounds out its wider surplus redistribution offering alongside commercial redistributor Company Shop Group, which was acquired by Biffa in 2021. An initial trial across 25 sites at Nando’s, Caffè Nero and Nisa has already delivered an impressive impact.

Same-day, local food redistribution now available as part of Biffa’s client offering 

Thanks to the partnership, any edible surplus food remaining at the end of the day can be shared with the community when stores, sites or restaurants close.

The process for those businesses is simple – colleagues simply set aside food that didn’t sell or get eaten at the end of the working day for Olio volunteers (called Food Waste Heroes) to collect. Volunteers then take that food home, and upload it to Olio’s app, so people nearby can request and collect it. Usually, food finds a new home in as little as 30 minutes.

The new service rounds out Biffa’s end-to-end food management model, with solutions for same-day redistribution by Olio complemented by Company Shop Group and regular scheduled waste and recycling collections by Biffa.

Biffa customers can now access Olio’s network of volunteers through one single partnership – the latest step made by the company in its mission to enable the circular economy in the UK, and to prevent surplus food from becoming waste.

Businesses can also track the impact that their Olio food donations are having on the local community via Olio’s Partner Hub – including how many meals they’ve rescued, how much water they’ve saved, and the emissions avoided through the food they’ve redistributed.

“We’re constantly looking for innovative ways to prevent surplus food from becoming waste in the first place in our mission to enable the UK’s circular economy by reducing waste,” said Amy Hooper, Innovation Manager, Biffa.

Amy Hooper, Innovation Manager, Biffa

“It’s been an absolute pleasure working with Olio, and we are so excited to be launching this partnership. By joining forces, our unique collaboration enables us to move more food up the waste hierarchy than ever before, helping our customers hit their sustainability goals while saving them money by reducing food waste. 

“What sets this initiative apart is that businesses can tackle same-day food surplus, track the positive impact of their contribution, and access end-to-end food surplus and waste management solutions all in one place. Along with Company Shop Group as part of the wider Biffa group, customers will have access to a great range of options to manage their food waste and surplus sustainably with tangible social impact tracking.”

Saasha Celestial-One, co-founder and COO of Olio, added:

“We’re so proud to announce our new partnership with Biffa, which is the first of its kind in the commercial waste management sector. Together, we’re able to reduce the weight of good, edible food ending up in Biffa bins, and make sure it feeds local families instead. 

“Olio and Biffa are 100% aligned on our mission to build a future without waste, and we’ve been really encouraged to see the results from our trials across Caffè Nero, Nando’s and Nisa locations over the past 12 months. We’re incredibly grateful to the whole team at Biffa, store staff at our trial locations, and Olio’s volunteers for getting our partnership off to such a flying start.”

Saasha Celestial-One, co-founder and COO, Olio

Success stories: The partnership in action

The Biffa-Olio partnership has already seen successful trials with major brands like Caffè Nero, Nando’s and Nisa, with all three businesses reporting positive results.

When asked how they found the trial, one store manager at Nisa said:

“We are loving Olio. The volunteers are brilliant, the food is going out to the local community and it’s making me so proud to be able to help others. I definitely want to continue once the pilot is over.”

Tim Norton, Trials Manager at Nisa, said: “Cutting food waste is a big priority issue to overcome for independent retailers so it is pleasing to see that the initial trial period with Biffa and Olio has been a success. We look forward to working with them heading into 2025 to bring continued benefits for our independent retailers.”

Collectively, a trial running across 25 sites in 2023 and 2024 saw 54kg of food rescued, equating to 7,197 meals for local people, saving 2,258 litres of water and preventing 3,739kg in carbon emissions.

Olio’s volunteers all undertake thorough food safety training as part of their onboarding in the app, meaning Biffa clients can confidently donate any food type – including cooked, chilled and frozen food – as well as ambient grocery products.

Biffa’s drive for social impact at scale

Working with Olio to share surplus food same-day is the latest move by Biffa to tie meaningful social impact into its business model and mission to bolster the UK’s circular economy.

In 2021, Biffa acquired Company Shop Group, the UK’s leading surplus redistributor, which supports over 800 UK businesses redistribute surplus products and transforms imperfect products with incorrectly labelled or damaged packaging into perfectly saleable products, before selling them through its network of Company Shop ‘surplus supermarkets’.

The Group also redistributes surplus through its award-winning social enterprise, Community Shop, a not-for-profit tackling the root causes of food insecurity in some of the most deprived areas of the UK. With 13 stores nationwide, it provides access for thousands of families to deeply discounted food and essentials, as well as life changing development programmes.

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• 0.8 million tonnes of plastic packaging could be saved from being wasted via standardisation of materials, according to a new report by waste management firm Biffa
• The report – The UK Journey to Circularity – outlines interventions at all points in the plastic packaging supply chain, with realistic timescales
• Effective extension of the Plastic Packaging Tax could see a further 0.75m tonnes of waste avoided
• Developments to infrastructure, legislation, behaviour and investment must be made for these waste savings to be made

Nearly 1 million (0.8m) tonnes of plastic packaging waste could be avoided by standardising materials within the next five years, according to a new report from leading sustainable waste management company Biffa.

The report – The UK Journey to Circularity – launched alongside Biffa’s Waste Net Zero conference at the Birmingham Hippodrome on 11 June.

Consultancy partner WSP, the experts at Biffa have developed a new approach to circularity research and analysis, creating a framework which can be applied to specific resource streams, but also scaled to whole sectors or individual products. It outlines nine interventions to reduce plastic packaging waste – with timescales – needed from businesses, consumers and the UK Government.

The largest opportunity for intervention in the plastic packaging waste stream comes with the standardisation of materials; as a result, up to 0.8 million tonnes of material can be effectively recycled, rather than wasted. For significant impact to be seen in the quantity of plastic packaging effectively recycled, businesses will need to consider options for reuse and end-of-life processing in product design.

Biffa has already been part of a big change made in standardisation, advocating as part of a wider group of sustainable organisations for the standardisation of milk bottle caps. Historically, caps were coloured based on the milk a bottle contained (e.g. green for semi-skimmed) but have since been replaced with a clear alternative.

In turn, colour contamination in the HDPE (high-density polyethylene) material waste stream is reduced and – ultimately – bottles and caps can be recycled together to become new, food-grade plastic products in a circular economy.

Some onus regarding the interventions lies on the Government too, to implement extensions of existing legislation. The Plastic Packaging Tax (PPT) alone – a live scheme that over half (54%) of UK businesses recently told Biffa would impact them and ranked as the most important in a Censuswide survey commissioned by the brand* – could lead to a further  increase in the recycled content of plastic packaging by up to 0.3 million tonnes.

The waste and recycling industry has called for a higher target for the amount of recycled content mandated in the PPT, up to 50% and progressive taxation up to £500 per tonne. However, an extension of this tax to facilitate a 75% target for recycled content, rather than the current estimation of around 40% (which is already the equivalent of nearly 200,000 tonnes in carbon savings in 2022 and 2023), could see the potential impact of the legislation rise to from 0.3 to between 0.5 and 0.75 million tonnes by 2029.

Further interventions, such as a shift towards reusable packaging, implementation of ‘consumer pays’ schemes and enabling non-mechanical recycling could each see 0.13, 0.35 and 0.35 million tonnes of plastic packaging waste recycled where it may not have been otherwise.

Head of Partnerships, Biffa, Carla Brian, summarises what needs to be true to achieve these high-volume reductions:

“Requirements for new infrastructure are necessary but hinge on when, and to what extent, changes in the supply chain are made. Efforts to make plastic packaging more circular could simplify (with standardisation, for example) or lessen the burden on existing waste management infrastructure.

“Upcoming legislation – including Simpler Recycling – will be a starting point for circular activity; expansions of (and new) legislation will further circular growth. Some policies have overlapping goals, too. If implemented correctly, for example, the Deposit Return Scheme will achieve similar goals to Extended Producer Responsibility.

“The value of circularity is not fully recognised, so education is needed for businesses and consumers. Programmes highlighting environmental, financial and societal benefits of circularity could lead to behavioural change, while reactionary businesses will make change more rapidly with consumer desire for circular products and services.

“Investment in areas outside of infrastructure (though the two are closely linked). For example, in research, development and demonstration will help identify and test circular best practice. Such investments will assist in the transition to more circular ways of working.”

Full details of Biffa’s framework for UK circularity, including the interventions, the timelines associated and the potential impact in plastic packaging can be found in The UK Journey to Circularity report: https://www.biffa.co.uk/campaigns/waste-net-zero-2024

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It is estimated that between 2.5 to 5 billion disposable takeaway cups are used annually in the UK. With only 1 in 400 being recycled, that potentially means up to a staggering 4.98 billion takeaway cups are not being recycled and the raw materials wasted each year.

This is a recycling rate of just 0.25% for takeaway cups, compared to 70.6% for general paper and cardboard, which demonstrates the scale of the single-use takeaway cups challenge. They represent a ‘perfect storm’ of barriers to recycling.

First, takeaway cups are difficult to recycle. They are traditionally made of paper with a plastic coating which needs to be separated before the paper can be recycled. It cannot be collected and processed with standard paper.

Second, because they are made from paper, people think cups are widely recycled along with mixed recycling, which means the coffee cup is one of the most commonly wishcycled items. However, a specialist system is needed to collect and process takeaway cups.

Third, they are expensive to recycle. This is because they are bulky structures surrounding empty space, meaning a small number of takeaway cups take up a lot of room and less material is transported per collection compared say, to piles of old newspapers. Compared with these widely recycled paper products, there’s a higher cost and more carbon emissions created collecting and transporting takeaway cups, unless there is a specialist collection system in place.

Finally, they are prone to contamination. Beverages are served with lids, stirrers and sleeves which often do not get separated when disposed of. Also, people tend to use takeaway cups as a place to pack in all their other rubbish, creating ‘mini bins’. Contamination means that cups cannot be recycled and will be incinerated to generate energy, or even disposed of in landfill.

Biffa expert Waste Strategy & Packaging Manager Roger Wright, explores common myths associated with disposable cups and recycling. 

Myth 1: All takeaway cups are the same

Unfortunately, not. There are significant differences when it comes to engineering and developing the cups. Cups holding hot liquid must be made from strong virgin fibre to ensure their structural integrity. Additionally, because there is an exposed seam inside the cup touching the liquid, the cups material must be of the highest quality to guarantee the drink remains free of any contaminants.

Various types of single-use cups – like those designed for beer, soft drinks, and takeaway soups or porridge – come with assorted designs, coatings, specifications, and labels. This lack of consistency makes it harder to know how individual cups should be processed, so many people hope for the best and wishcycle in with other mixed recycling.

With designers constantly innovating, the market is flooded with cups made from different materials – not to mention the assortment of lid types that accompany them, which has further complicated the recyclability of disposable cups.

Myth 2: Takeaway cups are valuable to recyclers

Without a specialist system in place, cups are problematic for recyclers. The cups weight to volume ratio makes it an inefficient item to manage. Consequently, the total recoverable value is limited. Typically, hot cups weigh 275gsm on average, with many being ‘double walled’ or ‘sleeved’ for safety purposes, adding an outer layer of approximately 225gsm. Contrastingly, cold cups average a weight of 300gsm.

Ultimately, the cups’ highest value is only achieved through crushing or stacking them. Without these measures, collecting and processing the cups becomes impractical due to the insufficient value in the total volume. Despite the use of costly virgin solid bleached sulphate (SBS-based fibre), their design introduces challenges for efficient recycling.

Myth 3: Takeaway cups are simple to recycle

We wish that were the case. With almost as many different types of coating used to seal them as there are big brand takeaway chains, it’s virtually impossible to tell them apart in most recycling systems if they don’t arrive at the recyclers properly segregated. Without additional manual pickers or the presence of a dedicated digital technology, it is complicated to distinguish one type of cup from another and separate at scale. This means it is harder to guarantee the quality of the recycled material.

The use of consistent materials throughout the cups are the key to recycling more. That said, as the volume of recycled cups increases and the quality improves, more paper mills may become willing to accept different grades of recycled material. The key is for everyone to start recycling more.

Myth 4: Contaminated cups can still be recycled  

This is the biggest myth of all. When it comes to cup recycling, cups with lids and sleeves attached are contaminated and cannot be recycled. A widespread phenomenon of people using their empty cups as ‘mini-bins’ is a causing a lot of paper resource to be wasted. Consumers often treat these cups as small rubbish bins, disposing items such as tea bags, banana peels, apple cores, crisp packets and used tissues into them. Although the intentions are to compact waste and avoid littering, this habit is contaminating recycling and causing valuable resources to be lost.

What can be done?

In the longer-term many companies are exploring ways to introduce more reuse within takeaway drinks services, and to increase the consistency of materials used to make takeaway cups. In the immediate term businesses, consumers and waste management companies need to work together to recycle as much as possible.

There’s a huge opportunity to protect hundreds of tonnes of high-quality paper and unlock a valuable commodity. Biffa has launched a national takeback scheme providing a specialist system where collections and processing are cost and carbon efficient. Providing value to everyone involved.

100% of a polyethylene lined cup can now be recycled through Biffa’s coffee cup takeback system. High quality paper fibre goes on to make new packaging and the polyethylene lining is separated and processed into pellets, this goes on to be transformed into all sorts of useful products such as agricultural shrink wrap and even garden furniture.

Achieving over a 70% recycling rate like other paper might be ambitious due to the unique challenges and specialist nature of the collections, however vast improvement is possible and we’re already seeing progress with sustainability-focused businesses signing up to Biffa’s takeaway cup takeback service.

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