Are recyclable materials still finding their way into general waste at your business?
20th September 2026
Most businesses are now aware that recycling should now be firmly fixed within daily working life. But even with the right collection bins place, recyclable materials can still find their way into the general waste bin and consigned to landfill. So, what can your organisation do about it?
This year, WRAP’s “Rescue Me, Recycle!” campaign gave personalities to commonly missed items, including aerosols, shampoo bottles, yoghurt pots and foil trays. The idea of this fun and accessible scheme was to deliver a simple but serious message about learning what belongs in which bin – and following best practice accordingly.
The reason for this reminder: an estimated 2.3 billion recyclable items are still thrown into general waste in the UK each year, according to recent research.
While Recycle Week helped to raise awareness for households, the same principle applies in the workplace. Even businesses with well-established recycling collections are still seeing recyclable material partitioned incorrectly due to human error.
What’s actually going into your general waste?
Since March 2025, most workplaces in England have been required under Simpler Recycling to separate food waste and key dry recyclable materials from residual waste.
Having the right bins is an important starting point. How they’re used day to-day is another matter. Even with the right collections in place, everyday habits can mean recyclable materials still slip into the wrong container.
Think about the waste basket underneath the office desk. At the end of a long day, its contents may simply be bagged up and added to general waste, despite containing a mixture of drinks cans, food waste, paper and recyclable plastics.
Elsewhere, the problem might simply be uncertainty. If someone finishes their lunch and isn’t sure whether the container can be recycled – or can’t easily find the right bin – general waste often becomes the easiest option. In busy workplaces, convenience can quickly win out.
That’s why it’s worth occasionally looking at what’s actually being thrown away. If you’re regularly finding recyclable materials in general waste, consider what’s causing it. Removing individual desk bins, positioning recycling points where waste is generated, improving signage or giving staff clearer guidance could all make better separation much easier.
Some waste is easier to miss than others
What needs recycling can actually look very different from one business to the next. Hospitality businesses, for example, can generate significant quantities of bottles and jars. If glass is a major part of your waste, a dedicated commercial glass recycling service could make more sense than relying on other collections.
Then there are the items that don’t belong in your everyday recycling bins at all. Old laptops, monitors, printers, cables and other electrical equipment have a habit of accumulating in offices and store rooms. So, when the time comes to clear these out, having an appropriate or WEEE waste collection arrangement gives businesses a route for dealing with electrical and electronic equipment when it’s no longer needed.
Food is another area for close consideration. From preparation waste in commercial kitchens to leftovers after staff lunches, workplaces covered by Simpler Recycling need to keep food waste separate from residual waste.
Make it difficult to get recycling wrong
It’s always important not to assume that recycling best practice is obvious to everyone. In fact, the solution to poor waste separation is generally the reinforcement of accurate information in the form of signage (both written labels and visuals).
It’s worth reviewing the collections themselves, too. If one container is overflowing while another is typically half empty then your current setup might need tweaking. After all, a full dry recycling bin may encourage people to simply put further dry recycling items into general waste rather than cause the contents of the bin to topple over.
Recycling doesn’t mean making waste management complex and time consuming. Sometimes it’s simply a case of understanding what you’re throwing away and making sure there’s an obvious place for it to go.
At Everflow, we help businesses find waste collections that match what they actually produce. Get in touch with our team to review your waste requirements and see whether more of your recyclable materials could be rescued from general waste . . . and, ultimately, from landfill.
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