Martlands provides licensed commercial food waste collection to restaurants, pubs, hotels, schools, care homes, retailers, manufacturers and distribution centres across Lancashire, Cheshire, Merseyside, Greater Manchester and Cumbria. Separating food waste is now a legal requirement for most workplaces in England rather than an environmental choice, and where the waste contains material of animal origin a second set of rules applies on top. We hold Waste Carrier Licence CB/QE5406MT and Site Licence EAWML/100236 and operate from a DEFRA approved facility in Burscough.
What the Law Requires of Your Workplace
The rules come from the Separation of Waste (England) Regulations 2024, made under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 as amended by the Environment Act 2021, and delivered through the government’s Simpler Recycling programme. Since 31 March 2025, workplaces in England with ten or more full-time equivalent employees have had to arrange separate collection of food waste, dry recyclables and residual waste.
Two details in that rule catch businesses out more than any others.
The Employee Count Is Business-Wide, Not Per Site
The ten full-time equivalent threshold applies across the whole organisation rather than at each location. A company running three premises with five staff at each has fifteen employees and is in scope now, not in 2027. Multi-site restaurant groups, retail chains and care providers are the ones most often caught by this, because each individual site feels small.
There Is No Minimum Quantity in England
Every workplace in scope must separate food waste regardless of how little it produces, and regardless of whether it has a kitchen or serves food at all. Tea bags, coffee grounds, milk and the remains of desk lunches are food waste. This is where England differs from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which apply a weight threshold before the duty bites. An office with no catering facility is still in scope.
Deadlines Still Ahead
Micro-firms, meaning businesses with fewer than ten full-time equivalent employees across the organisation, have until 31 March 2027. Plastic film and flexible packaging join the separation requirement for all businesses on the same date. Local authorities were required to bring household collections into line by 31 March 2026, subject to transitional arrangements in some areas, which is why household provision across the North West still varies.
How Enforcement Actually Works
Non-compliance is not usually met with an immediate fine. The Environment Agency can issue a compliance notice requiring the arrangements to be put right, and failing to comply with that notice is the offence. That sequence is worth understanding, because it means the practical risk is a notice with a deadline attached rather than a penalty arriving unannounced.
You must also satisfy yourself that whoever collects your waste is registered on the public register of waste carriers, brokers and dealers. Using an unregistered carrier does not transfer your responsibility, it compounds it. Our waste carrier registration is CB/QE5406MT, and the wider consequences of material leaving a site through an unlicensed route are set out in our page on the environmental impact of improper disposal.
Where Food Waste Becomes an Animal By-Product
This is the part a general waste broker will not tell you, and it is the reason a licensed ABP operator is worth having on the account. Catering waste containing products of animal origin is Category 3 animal by-product, which brings the animal by-products regulations into play alongside the recycling duty. That means containment, documentation and permitted outlets, not just a separate bin.
It also means the material must not be fed to farmed animals under any circumstances. One exception matters at ports and airports. Catering waste from international transport is Category 1, not Category 3, and cannot be handled on a commercial food waste contract at all. Our guide to disposing of catering waste covers the practical steps for a commercial kitchen, and Category 3 ABP collection covers the tier in full.
Where a site produces animal by-products alongside ordinary food waste, both run on one account through our food waste and ABP collection service. The relationship between the two regimes is explained in our guide to food waste and ABP.
Setting Up Collection on Your Site
Government guidance advises against storing food waste for longer than two weeks, and recommends weekly or fortnightly collection as the baseline. In practice the right frequency is set by your storage conditions rather than by the guidance, because a bin standing in a yard in August behaves very differently from one in a cool store in February.
Small caddies at prep stations capture material at the point it is generated, which is the single change that most improves separation rates. Compostable liners keep external bins cleaner and reduce washing. Keep external containers lidded, shaded where possible, and positioned on a hard surface our vehicle can reach without crossing a customer area. We supply leak-proof lidded wheelie bins and kitchen caddies sized to the premises.
Who We Collect From
Restaurants, Pubs and Hotels
Hospitality produces the highest volume per square metre and the least space to store it. Frequency usually matters more than container size here. Larger operations may find our page on hotel food waste collection useful for the breakfast, banqueting and room service streams.
Schools, Colleges and Care Settings
Canteen waste is highly seasonal in education and steady in care, and both are non-domestic premises in scope of the rules. Our page on care home and hospital catering waste covers the sector in detail.
Retail and Supermarkets
Former foodstuffs arrive in volume and often still packaged, which adds a separation step before the content can reach a permitted outlet. Tell us the approximate packaged proportion when setting up, since it changes the container and the routing.
Food Manufacturing and Distribution
Production by-products arrive on predictable cycles once the pattern is understood, and we build routes around production timetables rather than fitting sites into fixed rounds. Sites also handling meat trimmings and bone are covered by butchers waste collection.
Commercial Food Waste Collection Across the North West
Burscough sits close to the M6, M58 and M62, which keeps the Liverpool and Manchester corridors and the Lancashire and Cheshire towns on regular rounds. Shorter distances mean fewer transport emissions attributable to your waste, which is a genuine reporting point rather than one we need to inflate.
Town-level coverage includes Southport food waste collection, Skelmersdale food waste collection, Formby food waste collection, Bootle food waste collection, Prescot food waste collection, Leyland food waste collection, Huyton food waste collection and Crosby food waste collection.
Documentation for Your Records
Every collection is accompanied by a Waste Transfer Note, or a Commercial Document where the material is handled as an animal by-product. The record identifies the material, the quantity, the producer, the carrier and the destination, and you retain your copy for two years.
These records evidence the duty of care, support environmental health and local authority inspections, and provide the weight data behind corporate reporting on diversion from landfill. The duty of care itself stays with your business rather than passing to us when the vehicle leaves.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does my business have to separate food waste?
If you are a workplace in England with ten or more full-time equivalent employees across the organisation, yes, and you have since 31 March 2025. Below that threshold the date is 31 March 2027. There is no minimum quantity in England.
We are a small site in a larger company, are we exempt?
Almost certainly not. The threshold counts employees across the whole business, not per premises, so a group of small sites is usually in scope already.
What if we have no kitchen?
You are still in scope. Tea bags, coffee grounds, milk and food brought in by staff all count, and the rules apply to waste produced by employees, customers and visitors alike.
How often should collections be?
Government guidance recommends weekly or fortnightly and advises against storing food waste beyond two weeks. Most hospitality sites need more than that in summer. We set frequency around your storage rather than a standard round.
Can you take packaged food?
Certain packaged former foodstuffs can be collected, as packaging must be separated before the content reaches its outlet. Tell us what proportion of your stream is packaged when you enquire so we can confirm what we can take.
What happens if we do not comply?
The Environment Agency can issue a compliance notice requiring the arrangements to be corrected. Failing to comply with that notice is the offence, so the realistic first consequence is a notice with a deadline rather than an immediate penalty.
Arrange Commercial Food Waste Collection
If you are not sure whether your business is in scope, or whether any of your food waste is also an animal by-product, that is worth resolving before an inspection raises it. We can assess your streams, supply appropriate containers and set a frequency that reflects how your site runs. Call 01704 776977 to speak to the team, or use our contact us page to request a quote for commercial food waste collection.