Liverpool butchers waste collection has to work for a very mixed trade. A family butcher on Allerton Road, a halal shop in Kensington or Wavertree, a stall serving Saturday shoppers and a cutting room on an industrial estate in Speke all produce bones, fat and trim every day, and all of it is an animal by-product the moment it leaves the food chain. Martlands is a family-run business based in Burscough, a short run up the A59 and M58 from the city, providing licensed fallen stock and ABP collection across Merseyside and the North West.
This guide sets out what Liverpool butchers need to get right, from separating Category 1 and Category 3 material to the paperwork a Liverpool City Council food safety officer will expect to see.
How Liverpool Butchers Waste Collection Works in Practice
Every collection we make is carried out under our Waste Carrier Licence CB/QE5406MT and Animal By-Products Licence APB/CCN21/373/8002, and every one comes with a Commercial Document and a Waste Transfer Note. Those two documents are your proof that the material left your premises with an approved carrier and went to an approved destination. Our butchers waste collection service supplies leak-proof containers sized to your output, and collections are booked and managed through the KoLeCt system so you are not chasing a driver by phone on a busy Friday. The government also publishes detailed guidance on animal by-product categories and disposal.
Liverpool’s Butchery Trade – Independents, Halal Shops and Markets
The city’s independent butchers are spread through its neighbourhoods rather than concentrated in one place. Shops in Old Swan, West Derby village, Walton, Aigburth and along Allerton Road tend to buy in quarters, primals and whole lambs and break them down on site, which means a steady flow of bones, fat and trim. Halal butchers serving Liverpool’s diverse communities often process whole lamb and goat carcasses, and some also handle poultry, so their waste profile is broader and the split between categories needs more care. Our guide to halal butchers waste collection covers the specific issues that come up. Market traders around the city centre and the Great Homer Street area face a different problem altogether, with limited back-of-house space and no chiller to hold waste between collections.
Restaurants with in-house butchery are part of the picture too. A steakhouse dry-ageing and portioning its own beef produces exactly the same Category 3 material as a shop, and it carries exactly the same legal duties.
Category 3 Bones, Fat and Trim Versus Category 1 Material
Most of what a Liverpool butcher throws away is Category 3. Bones, fat, trim, offcuts and meat that was fit for human consumption but is now past its date or simply unsold all fall into this lowest-risk category, and our Category 3 ABP collection is the right route for it.
The exception is specified risk material. In cattle, the vertebral column is SRM in animals over 30 months, and only premises authorised to remove it should be doing so. In sheep and goats over 12 months, or with a permanent incisor erupted, the skull including brain and eyes, the tonsils and the spinal cord are SRM. Most of this is removed at the abattoir, but a shop or cutting plant buying older beef on the bone or whole older sheep can end up with it. Any SRM is Category 1 and must go through our Category 1 ABP collection, never into the Category 3 container. If the two are mixed, the whole container has to be treated as Category 1, which is the costliest and most restrictive outcome for you.
Separation, Labelling and Storage on Busy City Premises
Separation starts at the block. Keep a dedicated, clearly marked container for any SRM and a separate one for everyday bones, fat and trim. Category 3 containers should be labelled “Category 3 – not for human consumption”, and Category 1 material marked “Category 1 – for disposal only”. The recognised colour codes are green for Category 3 and black for Category 1.
Storage is where city premises struggle. Butchers waste should be kept away from food preparation areas, in lidded, leak-proof containers, ideally in a chiller or the coolest secure space you have. Warm back yards in summer bring smell, flies and complaints from neighbours above the shop, which is a common problem in terraced parades. Never put butchers waste in general waste bins or the council’s commercial trade waste service.
What a Liverpool City Council Food Safety Inspection Looks For
Environmental health officers from Liverpool City Council inspect butchers as food businesses, and the way you handle waste feeds into your food hygiene rating. Officers typically want to see that by-products are segregated from food, that containers are clean and covered, that waste is not building up between collections, and that you can show where it goes. Your Commercial Documents and Waste Transfer Notes answer that last question. Keep them together, in date order, for at least two years. Butchers who also hold Food Standards Agency approval as cutting plants should expect the same scrutiny from the FSA.
Cutting Rooms in Speke, Aintree and the Wider City
Larger operations on Liverpool’s industrial estates, from Speke and Garston in the south to Aintree and Kirkby in the north, generate tonnage rather than tubs. Wholesale cutting rooms and meat processors need collections planned around production, with container capacity matched to their busiest days. For these sites we often handle a combination of Category 3 trim and bone, Category 1 SRM, and returned or out-of-date product. Our Merseyside ABP collection page covers this wider industrial work. Shops just north of the city boundary are served in the same way through our Bootle butchers waste collection.
Setting the Right Collection Frequency
How often you need collecting depends on volume, storage space and whether you have refrigeration. A small shop with a walk-in chiller can hold bones and fat comfortably for longer than a market stall with no cooling at all. We agree a schedule with you based on what you actually produce, and adjust it for Christmas, Eid and bank holiday peaks when output rises sharply. If your business also generates kitchen or counter food waste, for instance from a hot food or deli counter, that is handled separately through our Liverpool food waste collection. For businesses across the rest of the county, see our Merseyside butchers waste collection coverage.
Common Mistakes in Liverpool Butchers Waste Collection
The same issues come up again and again. Lamb heads or older beef bones dropped into the Category 3 bin. Containers overfilled so the lid will not close. Waste left in a rear alley because there is nowhere else to put it. Paperwork that goes missing because it was handed to whoever happened to be on the counter. Each one is easy to fix with a clear routine, trained staff and a collector who provides documents every time.
To set up a compliant service for your shop, stall or cutting room, call Martlands on 01704 776977 and we will talk through your volumes, storage and the categories you produce.
