Martlands provides licensed butchers waste collection to high street shops, cutting plants, delicatessens, farm shops and abattoirs across Lancashire, Cheshire, Merseyside, Greater Manchester and Cumbria. Bone, fat, trimmings and inedible offal are animal by-products, which means they sit under a separate legal regime from ordinary commercial waste and cannot be handled through a general refuse contract. We operate under Animal By-Products Licence APB/CCN21/373/8002, with Waste Carrier Licence CB/QE5406MT and Site Licence EAWML/100236, from a DEFRA approved facility in Burscough.
Why Butchers Waste Cannot Go in the General Skip
This is the point most worth being clear about, because it is regularly framed as a cost question when it is actually a legal one. Material of animal origin that is not intended for human consumption is an animal by-product from the moment it is generated. Placing it in a general waste skip is not an expensive choice, it is an unlawful one, and the responsibility sits with the business that produced it rather than with the contractor who removed it.
The cost argument is real as well, and it runs alongside. Bone and fat are dense, general waste is charged by weight, and landfill tax applies to the whole load. Moving that material onto a dedicated route usually reduces the total waste bill at the same time as resolving the compliance position. Both things are true, but the legal point is the one that matters if an environmental health officer asks.
What We Collect from Butchery Premises
Most material from a butchery is Category 3, meaning it came from animals passed fit for human consumption at slaughter but is not intended for the table. That covers bone, fat and raw trimmings, inedible offal, hides, skins, hooves, horns and bristles, and expired counter stock and former foodstuffs from a deli or retail chiller.
Where a premises handles specified risk material, typically an abattoir or a plant processing older cattle, that material is Category 1 and must be kept entirely separate. It is collected through Category 1 ABP collection rather than on this service. Animals or parts rejected at an abattoir on infectious disease grounds are Category 2 and go through Category 2 ABP collection. Our Martlands guide to butchers waste works through what belongs where.
Keeping the Category 3 Stream Clean
Category 3 is the only tier with real recovery value, and that value disappears on contact with a higher tier. If Category 1 or Category 2 material reaches a Category 3 container, the entire load is treated as the higher category. On a small shop floor with limited space and staff working at pace, that is a practical risk rather than a theoretical one, which is why colour-coded and clearly labelled containers earn their keep. Packaging and general refuse must also be kept out, since both compromise the rendering stream. Further detail is in Category 3 ABP collection and in our guide to butchers waste best practices for hygiene and compliance.
Storage, Odour and Pest Control
In a retail butchery, waste storage is a shop-front issue as much as a compliance one. Material of animal origin held in warm conditions becomes an odour and pest problem quickly, and in a small premises the back of house is rarely far from the counter.
We supply leak-proof, lidded containers sized to the premises. Keep them out of direct sun, closed between uses, and positioned on a hard, washable surface where our vehicle can reach them without crossing the retail area. In summer, the useful adjustment is usually collection frequency rather than a bigger bin, because a larger container simply holds material longer. Our storage of animal by-products guidance covers containment and siting in more detail.
Documentation and Environmental Health Inspections
Every butchers waste collection is accompanied by a Commercial Document, or a Waste Transfer Note where the material is handled as waste under the duty of care. The document records the category, the quantity, the producer, the carrier and the receiving plant, and your copy is retained for two years.
The duty of care does not transfer to us when the vehicle leaves. We supply the documentation and keep our end of the record, but the obligation to hold and produce it remains with your business. That is worth knowing, because the difference between a quick inspection and a long one is usually whether the file is in date order or loose in a drawer. Our page on disposing of animal by-products covers the wider obligations.
Collection Frequency and Premises Size
High Street Shops and Farm Shops
A single-counter butchery typically needs one or two collections a week, driven by storage capacity rather than by volume. Where space is tight, more frequent collection of a smaller container is almost always better than a large bin emptied occasionally.
Cutting Plants and Wholesale
Higher throughput sites need collection matched to production, with capacity for peaks around seasonal demand. We build routes around production schedules rather than fitting sites into fixed rounds.
Abattoirs and Primary Processors
Abattoirs generate all three categories at once, and the operational risk is a stream reaching the wrong container rather than the volume itself. Running all three through one licensed operator removes the handover points where that tends to happen.
Premises with Mixed Food Waste
Shops with a kitchen, deli counter or café produce commercial catering waste alongside butchery material. Both can run on one account through food waste collection or full food waste and ABP collection.
What Happens to the Material
Category 3 material from butchery goes to a DEFRA approved rendering facility, where it is processed into tallow and meat and bone meal. The protein fraction goes into pet food manufacture. Rendered fats go to oleochemical uses including soaps, lubricants and biodiesel feedstock, and meat and bone meal can be used in organic fertilisers subject to the restrictions on land grazed by farmed animals. Hides and skins go to licensed tanneries. None of it goes to landfill, which is the point of keeping the stream clean at source. Our page on the problem with butchers waste explains why this stream causes more difficulty than its volume suggests.
Butchers Waste Collection Across the North West
Burscough sits close to the M6, M58 and M62, which keeps the Lancashire market towns, the Merseyside retail centres and the Cheshire processing belt on regular rounds rather than exception journeys. Being local also means a collection can usually be brought forward when a freezer fails or an order lands larger than expected, which a national broker routing through a subcontractor cannot easily do.
We cover Lancashire butchers waste collection, Cheshire butchers waste collection, Merseyside butchers waste collection and Greater Manchester butchers waste collection areas, with town-level pages for Preston butchers waste collection, Warrington butchers waste collection, Southport butchers waste collection and Chorley butchers waste collection.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is butchers waste always Category 3?
Most of it is. Bone, fat and trimmings from animals passed fit at slaughter are Category 3. Specified risk material is Category 1, and material rejected on infectious disease grounds is Category 2. A retail shop will usually produce only Category 3; an abattoir will produce all three.
Can I put meat waste in my general waste skip?
No. Animal by-products must go through a licensed route, and the responsibility for that sits with your business. It would also cost more, because bone and fat are heavy and general waste is charged by weight, but the legal position is the reason not to.
How often will you collect?
Anything from daily to fortnightly, set by your storage capacity rather than a standard schedule. Most single-counter shops settle on once or twice a week and increase it over the summer.
What size containers do you supply?
Leak-proof lidded containers in a range of sizes to suit the premises. For a small shop, the right answer is usually a smaller container collected more often rather than a larger one collected less.
Do I need to separate packaging?
Yes. Packaging and general refuse must be kept out of the Category 3 container, because both compromise the rendering stream and can push the load onto a costlier route.
What paperwork will I be given?
A Commercial Document or Waste Transfer Note at each collection, which you retain for two years. It is the record an environmental health officer will ask to see.
Arrange Butchers Waste Collection
Whether you run a single shop or a multi-site cutting operation, we can assess what you produce, supply appropriately sized containers and set a frequency that reflects your storage rather than a standard round. Call 01704 776977 to speak to the team, or use our contact us page to request a quote for butchers waste collection.