A restaurant, pub, café or hotel kitchen produces a steady mix of waste every day: food scraps, packaging, cardboard, glass bottles, used cooking oil and the contents of grease traps. Each stream has its own collector, its own rules, and its own paperwork. This guide sets out what a hospitality business in the UK has to do with each one, with the emphasis on England and Wales, and flags where Scotland and Northern Ireland differ.
Your duty of care as a producer
Every business that produces waste has a duty of care under section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. For a kitchen, that means keeping waste secure on the premises, passing it only to an authorised carrier, describing it accurately, and keeping the paperwork. If your waste is fly-tipped by a contractor you hired, the legal trail leads back to you unless you can show you took reasonable steps. The full picture is in the UK duty of care guide.
The practical point for a busy kitchen is that the contractor who empties your bins is not automatically compliant just because the bin is branded. Ask for the carrier's registration number, check it on the public register (see how to search the EA waste carrier register), and ask where the waste goes. If you employ a contractor for general waste, another for food and a third for oil, you are checking three suppliers, not one.
Food waste and separate collection
Food waste is the heaviest and most regulated stream in most kitchens. Rules vary by nation.
- England. Under the Simpler Recycling reforms, workplaces with ten or more full-time equivalent employees have been required to separate food waste for collection since 31 March 2025. Micro-firms, those with fewer than ten full-time equivalent employees, were given until 31 March 2027. Check the current gov.uk guidance for the exact definitions and any exemptions, because the detail has been refined since the policy was announced.
- Wales. The workplace recycling regulations, in force since April 2024, require businesses and other non-household premises to separate materials including food waste, paper and card, glass, metals, plastics and cartons, and small electrical items and textiles. Food waste separation applies to premises producing more than a minimum weekly amount, and a ban on sending food waste to the sewer applies to non-household premises.
- Scotland. The Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012 require food businesses producing more than a set weekly amount of food waste to present it for separate collection, with a ban on macerating food waste into the sewer in most non-rural premises. Check Zero Waste Scotland and SEPA for the current thresholds.
- Northern Ireland. Food waste regulations apply to food businesses above a weekly threshold. Check NIEA guidance for the current position.
The nation-by-nation differences are covered in waste regulations in England, Scotland and Wales. If you work across a border, for example a group with sites in Cardiff and Bristol, set up each site to its own nation's rules.
Animal by-products and why food waste cannot just be fed on
Catering waste is classed as an animal by-product (ABP) under the animal by-products rules, and in the UK it must not be fed to farm animals. The ban on swill feeding has been in place since the foot and mouth outbreak of 2001. In practice that means kitchen food waste goes to a composting plant, an anaerobic digester or another approved treatment route, via a collector that is authorised to handle it. Ask your collector which approved facility receives your waste and keep that information with your records.
If you also run a delivery operation, a deli counter or a canteen, the same applies. Waste meat, fish, dairy and plate scrapings are all covered. Never put them into a skip with garden or general waste.
Glass, cardboard and dry recycling
Bar and restaurant glass is heavy, easy to recycle, and a frequent cause of friction with collectors. Whether you can mix it with other dry recyclables depends on what your contractor does at the other end. Under the English reforms workplaces are expected to separate recyclables from general waste, and some materials may need their own bin. Ask your contractor in writing how they handle glass, paper and card, plastic and metal, and what contamination they will reject.
A few sensible practices for a hospitality business:
- Flatten and keep cardboard dry. A wet pallet of boxes is often downgraded to general waste.
- Empty bottles of liquid before they go in the glass bin. Standing liquids make bins heavier and messier.
- Keep glass out of the general waste, where a broken bottle is a safety risk to anyone emptying the bin.
- Agree collection frequency around the busiest weekends, not an average week.
- Label bins in the language or pictorial form that your staff actually use.
Packaging brings its own responsibilities for large producers and brand owners under the packaging producer responsibility rules, but most independent restaurants fall below the thresholds. If your turnover or the amount of packaging you handle is large, check the packaging guidance on gov.uk.
Used cooking oil
Used cooking oil from a fryer is waste, and it is non-hazardous. It has a high value as a feedstock for biodiesel and other products, which is why collectors will often take it free of charge or pay you for it. That does not remove your duty of care. The collector is a waste carrier, so they need a registration, and the oil also falls within animal by-product rules because it comes from catering. A reputable collector will be able to show both and tell you where the oil is processed.
Do not pour oil down the drain. Fat, oil and grease cause blockages in sewers, and sewer misuse is an offence under the Water Industry Act 1991, with water companies able to take action and seek the costs of clearing a blockage. If you have a grease trap or grease separator, empty it at the interval recommended by the manufacturer or your water company. Trap contents are a different waste from used fryer oil, and need collection by a carrier registered for it, with their own entry on your transfer note.
The rules on cooking oil and engine oil differ sharply, and mixing them is a real mistake. See waste cooking oil and waste engine oil: which rules apply for how to tell them apart.
The paperwork for each stream
A restaurant has several waste streams and often several collectors, but the paperwork is repetitive and manageable if you organise it once.
You need a waste transfer note for each type of non-hazardous waste each time it changes hands. Where the same collector takes the same waste at regular intervals, a season ticket can cover those collections for up to 12 months, as long as the details do not change. See season tickets for waste transfers for how they work. In a restaurant this is typically the right answer for weekly general waste, food waste and oil collections.
On the note, describe the waste plainly and give the right code. Typical codes seen in hospitality include 20 01 08 for biodegradable kitchen and canteen waste, 20 01 25 for edible oil and fat, 19 08 09 for grease and oil mixtures from oil and water separation containing only edible oil and fats, and 20 03 01 for mixed municipal waste. Check the codes with your contractor, who may assign different ones depending on the treatment route, and see EWC codes explained.
Keep the notes for at least two years. A simple folder, or a digital copy, is enough, as long as you can produce it when an inspector or a council officer asks. How long to keep waste transfer records has the details.
Other streams a hospitality business forgets
Beyond the big three, a hospitality premises produces several smaller waste streams that need a plan.
- Waste electricals. Broken kettles, glass-wash machines, coffee machines, TVs and refrigeration units are WEEE. Hand them to the supplier on replacement, or use an authorised collector. Refrigeration equipment with refrigerant gases needs specialist handling.
- Batteries and light bulbs. Keep a labelled box. Fluorescent tubes are hazardous waste and need the right paperwork.
- Cleaning chemicals. Empty containers that held hazardous products may themselves be hazardous. Check the label and the supplier's safety data sheet.
- Furniture and fit-out waste. A refit generates timber, plasterboard, flooring and fittings. The contractor doing the refit usually produces and removes it, but check who is responsible in writing.
- Sharps and sanitary waste. Hotels and pubs with public toilets may need a sanitary waste service, and any needles found on site need specialist handling.
Hotels and pub groups also sometimes hold mixed hazardous items, such as old paint or pest control products. If you are not sure whether something is hazardous, see hazardous waste regulations in the UK and ask your contractor.
Reducing cost and risk
Waste costs in hospitality can be reduced without cutting corners. The strongest lever is measurement. Weigh or estimate food waste for two weeks and see what your kitchen throws away: over-prep, plate waste, spoiled stock. A kitchen that knows its waste can change its ordering and portion sizes. Hospitality bodies and WRAP publish practical guidance, and the amount of food that a typical kitchen can avoid wasting is often larger than managers expect. We will not quote a figure here, since it varies by type of business, but a short audit will give you your own.
Separation also reduces cost. Food waste collected as food waste, and cardboard and glass collected as recycling, are cheaper to handle than the same material in a general waste bin. Check whether your contractor charges by lift, by weight or by bin size, and match your bins to your real volumes.
What an inspector or council officer will ask
Enforcement is usually shared between the Environment Agency (or NRW, SEPA and NIEA), local councils and, for food waste and animal by-products, other bodies. A visit might follow a complaint about bins, a rodent problem or a fly-tipping investigation that points back to your premises. The questions are predictable.
- Who collects each of your waste streams, and can you show their registration?
- Can you show waste transfer notes or season tickets for the last two years?
- Is food waste separated, and where does it go?
- Where is oil stored, and who collects it?
- Are bins secure, covered and kept clear of drains?
If you can answer each from a single folder, the visit is usually short. If not, the officer has grounds to ask for improvements, and for repeat failures the regulator or council can use its enforcement powers.
Try it yourself
Create a one-off transfer note without an account.