Stockport food waste collection has changed from a nice-to-have into a legal requirement for many businesses in the borough. Under Simpler Recycling, most workplaces in England with ten or more full-time equivalent employees have had to separate food waste since 31 March 2025, and the busy mix of independent restaurants, cafes, schools, care homes and food manufacturers across Stockport means a lot of kitchens now need a dedicated, compliant service.
Martlands is a family-run, DEFRA approved fallen stock and ABP collection business based in Burscough, Lancashire, licensed for Category 1, 2 and 3 animal by-products. That background matters for food waste, because most commercial kitchen waste is legally an animal by-product and has to be handled as one.
Stockport food waste collection across the borough and its suburbs
Stockport’s food trade is unusually varied for one borough. The Underbanks and the streets around the Market Place and Produce Hall have become home to independent restaurants, bars, bakeries and street food traders. Merseyway and Redrock bring chain restaurants and cinema concessions. Out in Bramhall, Cheadle, Cheadle Hulme, Marple and Heaton Moor there are busy cafe and brunch districts, while Hazel Grove and the A6 corridor carry takeaways, pubs and roadside food outlets. Behind all that sit hospital and college catering, school kitchens, care homes and food production units on the industrial estates near the M60. GOV.UK explains the Simpler Recycling rules for workplaces in England in full.
Our food waste collection service supplies leak-proof containers sized to your output, collects on a schedule that suits your trade, and provides the paperwork you need for inspections and audits. Larger sites that also produce raw meat trim, bones or production waste can use our combined food waste and ABP collection so that everything leaves under the correct documents.
Why kitchen waste counts as Category 3
Catering waste that contains or has been in contact with meat, fish, eggs, dairy or other animal products is classed as Category 3 animal by-product. In a real kitchen that covers nearly everything, because plate scrapings, prep waste and out-of-date stock are mixed together. It must be collected by a licensed carrier and taken to an approved facility. It must never be fed to pigs, poultry or any other livestock, however tempting it might be to pass it to a smallholder.
Former foodstuffs from bakeries, delis and manufacturers can also be Category 3, depending on what they contain and how they are packaged. Our Category 3 ABP collection service covers these streams, including packaged products that have passed their date or failed quality checks.
What Simpler Recycling means for Stockport businesses
Since 31 March 2025, businesses in England with ten or more full-time equivalent employees must present food waste separately from general waste and dry recyclables. Micro-businesses with fewer than ten are expected to follow from 31 March 2027. The duty applies to the business producing the waste, not only to the landlord or the shopping centre management, so a unit in Merseyway or a cafe in Bramhall village needs to know where its food waste goes and be able to prove it. The government also publishes detailed guidance on animal by-product categories and disposal.
In practice that means three things. Food waste must be kept out of general waste bins. It must be collected separately by a carrier who can take it lawfully. And you must keep records. Our guide to what Simpler Recycling means for your premises covers the detail.
Bins, storage and keeping the back door tidy
Many Stockport town centre premises have very little outside space. The Underbanks in particular are steep, narrow and tightly built, and some businesses share yards or rear access with neighbours. Leak-proof containers with tight lids are essential where bins sit close to back doors, cellar steps or public paths, because food waste attracts gulls and rats quickly and leaking bins are a common reason for environmental health complaints.
Keep caddies inside the kitchen at prep stations and the pot wash, empty them into the main container at least daily, and keep the lid closed. Do not put packaging, gloves or cleaning cloths in with food waste. If you produce cooking oil, keep it in a separate sealed container and do not tip it into the food waste bin.
Meat-heavy kitchens, butchers and production sites
Steakhouses, grills, butchers’ counters and catering butchers produce raw bones, fat and trim in quantities that ordinary food waste collection is not designed for. That material is still Category 3, but it is better handled as a separate stream. Stockport premises can use our Greater Manchester butchers waste collection service, and wider by-product streams from manufacturing units are covered under Greater Manchester ABP collection.
Stockport also borders Cheshire East, with Poynton, Handforth and Wilmslow just to the south. Businesses with sites on both sides of the boundary can use our Cheshire ABP collection service so that one licensed collector looks after every location.
Paperwork for inspections and sustainability reporting
Every collection comes with a Waste Transfer Note, and Category 3 animal by-products also travel with a Commercial Document. Keep them on file. Environmental health officers from Stockport Council can ask to see how your food waste is managed, and those documents are the evidence. They are also suitable for ISO 14001 systems and for the sustainability reporting that many hospital, college and corporate catering contracts now require.
Our licences are Waste Carrier Licence CB/QE5406MT, Site Licence EAWML/100236 and Animal By-Products Licence APB/CCN21/373/8002. Collections are booked and managed through the KoLeCt system, which keeps a clear record of each job.
How Stockport food waste collection runs from Burscough
Stockport sits on the M60 on the south-east side of Greater Manchester, a straightforward motorway run from our base in Burscough. We plan routes so that Stockport customers are serviced as part of regular rounds across the region, which keeps collections dependable for kitchens that cannot afford a full bin on a Saturday night. Tell us about access restrictions, loading bays, height barriers and the times your street is closed to vehicles, and we will plan around them.
To set up food waste collection for a restaurant, cafe, school, care home or production unit anywhere in Stockport, call Martlands on 01704 776977 or contact us online. Tell us what you produce, roughly how much, and where the bins will sit, and we will recommend the right containers and schedule.
