Mixed recycling collection
Mixed recycling takes paper, card, plastic and metal, clean and dry. Food waste, glass, black sacks and plastic film do not belong in it. Simpler Recycling has required English workplaces with 10 or more full-time equivalent staff to separate their recycling since 31 March 2025 (GOV.UK, checked 10 August 2026).
We arrange the collection through licensed carriers. The price on your quote is the carrier's rate plus our margin, shown to you before you sign. Bins come with the service. If your current collection prices well for your volumes and lift frequency, we say so and you stay put.
What goes in the mixed recycling bin
Paper means newspapers and envelopes. Card means boxes and cardboard food packaging. Metal covers drinks cans, rinsed food tins and empty aerosols. Plastic covers rinsed pots, tubs, trays, bottles and cartons (GOV.UK, checked 10 August 2026). The industry calls this stream dry mixed recycling, or DMR.
Contamination is what gets a load turned away. Keep out food waste, plastic film, polystyrene, black sacks, drinking glasses and Pyrex, textiles, and batteries or vapes (Aberdeen City Council and West Northamptonshire Council commercial lists, checked 10 August 2026). A spoiled load can be rejected, or cost extra to sort (Business Waste Ltd, checked 10 August 2026). Put items in loose rather than bagged. Rinse and flatten them.
Glass needs its own container, so it goes to glass collection. Food waste must be separated even where you have no kitchen (GOV.UK, checked 10 August 2026). Shredded paper is a job for confidential shredding, because sorting plants reject loose shreds.
Simpler Recycling and your business
The default in England is paper and card in one container, with plastic, metal and glass in another. A single bin holding all four materials is allowed only where your collector has completed a written co-collection assessment. That assessment has to show separate collection is not technically or economically practicable, and we ask the carrier for it before quoting you a combined bin. Workplaces under 10 full-time equivalent staff have until 31 March 2027, and the Environment Agency can serve a compliance notice where the rules are missed (GOV.UK, checked 10 August 2026).
Bins and frequency
Most sites run a 1100 litre bin on a weekly or fortnightly lift. A 240 litre suits an office, a 660 litre fits side access, and an FEL holds up to 600kg, all on commercial bins.
Every other stream we arrange sits on commercial waste.
Your collection is made by CARRIER + EA PERMIT — Kev to supply. Check any carrier free on the Environment Agency's public register of waste carriers, brokers and dealers before you hand waste over. You need a waste transfer note for each load leaving your premises, kept two years. Regular rounds are usually papered with a season ticket, covering up to a year of the same non-hazardous waste (GOV.UK, checked 10 August 2026).
Common questions
- What is dry mixed recycling (DMR)?
One bin for clean, dry paper, cardboard, plastics and metals. Glass is excluded from DMR and collected separately. Councils and most buyers call the same thing mixed recycling.
- Do I need separate bins for paper and plastic?
In England, yes by default. Paper and card go in one container, plastic and metal in another. One combined bin is allowed only where your collector has done a written co-collection assessment (GOV.UK, checked 10 August 2026).
- What cannot go in mixed recycling?
Food waste, plastic film, polystyrene, black sacks, drinking glasses and Pyrex, textiles, and electricals including batteries and vapes. Anything wet or greasy spoils the clean material around it.
- Is business recycling a legal requirement?
Yes in England. Workplaces with 10 or more full-time equivalent staff have had to separate dry recyclables, food waste and residual waste since 31 March 2025. Under 10 staff, the date is 31 March 2027 (GOV.UK, checked 10 August 2026).