New recycling rules 31st March 2026

[PeteXXX]

Have you a link for this? I've not heard anything about it. In Leeds we only have 3 bins, black is general waste, brown is garden waste and green is recycling. There's no time to get a new bin to everyone so it can't be coming in here for ages yet.

Also they only just added glass to the allowed list of stuff for the green bins last year so changing it again would cause no end of confusion.

~ HM Gov linkie ~

👍

 

[Dogtrousers]

Have you a link for this? I've not heard anything about it. In Leeds we only have 3 bins, black is general waste, brown is garden waste and green is recycling. There's no time to get a new bin to everyone so it can't be coming in here for ages yet.

Also they only just added glass to the allowed list of stuff for the green bins last year so changing it again would cause no end of confusion.

Google Simpler Recycling UK there are tons of articles

Here's the underlying regulations, it's aimed at local authorities telling them what they need to do
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/simpler-recycling-household-recycling-in-england

Edit :beaten to the punch by @PeteXXX

 

[Webbo2]

~ HM Gov linkie ~

👍

There doesn’t seem to be any indication that you will be fined for putting the wrong thing in the recycling.

 

[PeteXXX]

There doesn’t seem to be any indication that you will be fined for putting the wrong thing in the recycling.

Linkie
It's in The Sun: it must be true!

 

[Webbo2]

Here in North Yorkshire we have wheelie bins for plastic and glass, paper and cardboard, general waste and we have to pay for garden waste.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Linkie
It's in The Sun: it must be true!

Except it isn't. Correction on the gov website
https://deframedia.blog.gov.uk/2026/01/15/inaccurate-reporting-on-fines-under-simpler-recycling/

 

[annedonnelly]

It was very frustrating when I lived in England that each council did recycling differently. I lived in Northumberland and couldn't recycle yogurt cartons (for example), but my work colleague living 6 miles away in North Tyneside could. Another colleague living in Washington had different rules again. We all worked in Newcastle so something that we discarded in the office might have to be disposed of differently to when at home. It's no wonder that people just shoved everything in the general waste bin.

I believe these rule changes are to standardise things.

 

[Dogtrousers]

There are also some new regs coming in for places like shops and cafés and fast food places for where you dispose of coffee cups and packaging and stuff ... I think. I could be mistaken - my source for that was "a bloke on YouTube".

 

[DRM]

Have you a link for this? I've not heard anything about it. In Leeds we only have 3 bins, black is general waste, brown is garden waste and green is recycling. There's no time to get a new bin to everyone so it can't be coming in here for ages yet.

Also they only just added glass to the allowed list of stuff for the green bins last year so changing it again would cause no end of confusion.

That's right, 3 bins, brown for garden waste, black for land fill, green for recycling, with glass allowed in now, as well as aerosols, the black bin hardly has anything in it these days, whilst the green one is full to the brim, I think that the cobblers about different types of plastic will go out of the window, as the the price of plastic pellets used in manufacturing plastics have sky rocketed too, all thanks to the orange imbecile in the Whitehouse

 

[Dadam]

No change in Leeds, stays as 3 bins with current rules.

https://news.leeds.gov.uk/news/leed...new-brown-bin-food-collection-trial-announced

 

[Jenkins]

Doesn't start round here until June. The main differences are the separation of paper/card from plastics, finally adding glass and soft plastic to the recycling collections and the food waste bins.

Garden waste bins are subject to a yearly charge, so I don't bother and either take the bits down to the local recycling centre once every month or two or the main non-recycling bin takes two black sacks of grass clippings hidden under other rubbish.

 

[classic33]

I'm still banned from recycling, by the local council, so no worries on this.

The last of those who were in elected office at the time I was banned is stepping down this year.

 

[raleighnut]

Single black bin here in Leicester and Orange bags for mixed recycling (Paper, Plastic, Bottles. Cans)
Garden Waste, they'll take away up to 14 bags and 5 'bulky items' (settees, beds, fridges etc) every 3 months................Free.

 

[YMFB]

In Wiltshire food Waste hasn’t started, we pay extra for garden waste, green bin.

Mixed recycling which is most of it goes in a blue bin

Glass goes in black box.

non recyclables in a black bin.

When our children were at home our non recyclables was always full, our mixed recycling bin is nearly always full now we are just two.

WCC are trying to move us to three weekly collections. That would be ok for glass and non recyclables, but not the mixed recyclables and garden waste. Being rural we are already suffering from fly tipping.

WCC are also trying to reduce the number of household recycling centres (tips), ours is archaic and has a one in one out setup so highly inefficient. There is one in Shaftesbury, but we can’t go there because it’s in Dorset.

We are not only happy recycling we want to do it, but WCC are not making it easy and I can see more trips to the HRC. I think the French system certainly used in the Alps and other rural areas of having a community massive bins, largely underground wou ne the way forward.

 

[DRM]

Garden waste bins are subject to a yearly charge,

And they wonder why fly tipping is rife