Bin collections are changing – here's what you need to know

From 31 March 2026, a major change is being introduced across councils in England to standardise what is accepted in kerbside bin collections.

Simpler Recycling is an initiative designed to 'end the postcode lottery' of bin collections, drive up recycling rates, and reduce confusion about what can and can't go in your recycling bin.

You may have recently received information from your council saying you're getting new bins. Here's what it means and why it's changing.

The government aims to recycle 65% of municipal waste by 2035, and Simpler Recycling is an essential part of achieving this target. 

Basically, it means that all councils in England will have to collect and recycle the same items. One of the biggest changes for a lot of households will be the introduction of food waste collections. 

Other things that weren't routinely collected, such as aluminium foil, yoghurt pots or Tetra Pak containers, will now be accepted in English recycling collections.

Four bins for English kerbside collections

The new default bin set up for England will be four containers for your rubbish (five from March 2027). These are:

1. Mixed recycling

• Glass, including bottles and jars – some households may have a separate collection/box for glass. 
• Steel and aluminium cans, aerosols, aluminium foil and trays, jar and bottle lids, and tubes. 
• Plastic drinks, toiletries and cleaning bottles, plastic tubes such as toothpaste tubes, yoghurt pots and plastic trays.

2. Paper/Card

• All paper and card except any that contains glitter or foil, is laminated, sticky or has a lot of food residue. 
• No padded envelopes, books or wallpaper.

Some local authorities will continue to collect paper and card with the rest of the mixed recycling if it's too difficult for them to offer separate collections.

3. Food waste

• Any cooked and raw food, including meat, fish, bones, teabags (even ones containing plastic), coffee grounds and pet food.

Unlike home compost, you can put all food waste into a council collection, including meat and cooked or processed foods. 

Unfortunately, not everyone will actually gain a food waste collection from the end of March. A recent BBC investigation found that a quarter of councils are going to miss the deadline, blaming a lack of specialist vehicles needed for collection and funding gaps. 

Most have set revised deadlines later in the year, although some couldn't give dates for when they would be able to offer the service. There are also unresolved issues with collecting from some flats, particularly those above shops.

4. General waste

• Anything that can't be recycled, such as card or packaging that's too food-soiled, plastic-backed disposable coffee cups, broken glass and ceramics, polystyrene packaging, used tissues and wet wipes, nappies and pet waste.

Your black bin collection may become less frequent, but there should also be less to put in it. Separating food waste out from your general waste will make this bin less unpleasant to deal with (food waste collections will be weekly).

Soft plastics from March 2027

• From March 2027, councils will add a fifth bin to collect soft plastics and films, including plastic bags, food sachets/pouches, crisp and biscuit wrappers. Multi-layered pouches, such as cat food pouches, won't be part of this and will still have to be recycled at specialist points. 

Why food waste recycling is important

Household food waste is estimated to account for 60% of total food waste in the UK. Globally, food waste accounts for approximately 8-10% of annual greenhouse gases.

An oft-cited UN statistic states that if global food waste were a country, it would be the third-largest emitter, after China and the US.

While preventing food waste in the first place is best, disposing of it properly is very important. When food is left to decompose in landfill, it releases harmful gases such as methane.

When separated out, food waste can be effectively recycled in a number of ways. It's cheaper for local authorities to recycle food waste than dispose of it in landfill or by incineration.

There are three types of food waste/garden waste processing – open windrow composting, in-vessel composting and anaerobic digestion. 

• Open windrow composting is mainly for garden waste and involves arranging waste into rows in the open air and turning it regularly. 
• In-vessel composting takes place in a building or container, which accelerates decomposition as it is more controlled. 
• Anaerobic digestion breaks down material using micro-organisms, producing bio-gas and digestate that can be used as fertiliser. This is the most popular method for your food waste.

Households that routinely recycle food waste often reduce food waste overall, as the awareness of how much you are throwing away encourages behaviour change. 

In an online survey in December 2025, we asked people questions about their waste and recycling habits. Among those who already recycled food waste, 29% agreed that they think more about reducing their food waste as a result.

It also means less goes into your general waste/black bin. Alongside the addition of food waste collections, many councils have moved to fortnightly or even three-weekly collection of residual waste. 

How to make your food waste bin more pleasant 

One key barrier to successful food waste recycling is that some households simply don’t do it. In our survey, 52% of respondents said their council operated food waste collections, but of that group, 23% rarely or never used it. While some of that group (21%) said it was because they used a home compost bin, others cited it as too smelly or unhygienic (35%) or too messy (16%). 

If you're getting a food waste collection, you should be given a small food caddy for indoors and a larger one for outside, although this may differ if you live in a flat. 

However, if you're worried about rogue smells, our testing team have reviewed some more aesthetically pleasing food waste caddies for your kitchen counter that help keep odours in and are easy to clean. 

We've also tested some popular food waste bags for puncture resistance, stretching and durability to ensure you don't experience any breaks or spillages.

Make sure you empty your food waste caddy frequently, and wash it out between uses, to keep it from getting too smelly.

Can you recycle plastic bags and wrapping?

Currently, a small number of councils offer kerbside soft plastics recycling. From March 2027, this is supposed to change. But as things stand, you can still recycle your plastic bags and wrapping at most supermarkets. You should be able to find collection points at the front of most larger stores.

Unlike plastic milk and drink bottles (made of HDPE and PET, respectively), which are very successfully recycled into more bottles, the materials that plastic bags and wrapping are made from are harder to recycle. At the moment, most of what's collected and recycled will actually be 'downcycled' into less valuable items such as bin bags or plastic-based garden furniture.

There's also a lack of facilities in the UK to process all that's collected. But by increasing what we send for recycling, we increase the need to develop solutions to recycle it. So, recycling your bags and wrapping at home or at the supermarket is a really important step in improving our recycling rate for this sort of material. 

For more tips, read our guide to how to recycle in the UK.

The figures in this article are based on an online survey in December 2025 of 2,011 members of the public and are representative of the UK population aged 18+.