English councils still lack clarity on food waste regulations that come into force in just four months’ time, research has found.
Under the Government’s plans for ‘Simpler Recycling’, all businesses and organisations with more than 10 full-time employees will need to arrange separate food waste collections from next April, and councils will have to collect food waste weekly from households from April 2026.
But councils are still unclear if they are expected to be the ‘provider of last resort’ if private sector waste collectors will not offer a service to businesses, according to research by Newcastle University.
The report by Dr Jane Midgley says councils lack the data to estimate how much commercial waste they may be responsible for.
It also calls on the Government to ‘urgently’ consider waste treatment infrastructure after several councils warned they did not have enough anaerobic digesters in their areas.
