Bakeries now have just a couple of months to get ready for forthcoming legislation which means they must separate food waste from other waste streams.

It’s part of a government drive to improve recycling rates in the UK, with a focus on changing waste separation and collection requirements for domestic and non-domestic premises in England. Known as ‘Simpler recycling’, it requires businesses – including retailers, wholesalers, cafes, restaurants, and bakeries – to separate recyclable materials and food waste from general waste for collection by a licensed waste carrier. In the case of food waste, it would be ideally sent to anaerobic digestion.

“Small craft bakeries and larger food manufacturers will be held to the same standard, just at a different scale,” explains Carla Brian, head of partnerships at waste management firm Biffa.

The only ones exempt, at present, are micro businesses with less than 10 employees which must comply from 31 March 2027. “It’s worth preparing now by educating teams on the different waste streams and engaging your waste management partner to implement a dedicated food waste collection if you haven’t already got one in place,” advises Brian.

So, how can bakery businesses of all sizes ensure they comply with the upcoming changes?

“Bakeries must evaluate their bin sizes and arrange a dedicated collection for each waste stream” 

Firstly, they’ll need something to collect the waste in. Defra said businesses can decide on the size of containers and frequency of collections based on the volume of waste they produce.

“With mandated food waste separation, bakeries must evaluate their bin sizes and arrange a dedicated collection for each waste stream,” adds Brian. “Bin demand is currently high as businesses already aware of the upcoming legislation are starting to make changes.”

Next up is finding somewhere to put the bins. Rob Wycherley, managing director at waste and recycling firm Mobius – which counts Warburtons, Délifrance, and Pladis among its customer base – notes that “a common problem encountered by small businesses trying to introduce cost effective solutions for handling waste, including food waste, is the availability of space”.

Notably, the bins will involve upfront costs, but these are likely to be recouped in the long run.

“Bakeries that have not focussed on managing their waste effectively prior to this legislation may find that they have overlooked the opportunity to lower waste disposal costs,” advises Wycherley. “The cost of disposing of food waste on its own tends to be lower than the cost of waste disposal to landfill or other disposal routes.”

Many bakeries, therefore, may find that what they have been paying to dispose of as general mixed waste is actually food, therefore having a dedicated food waste collection may reduce disposal costs.

Another key piece of the puzzle is ensuring buy-in from staff to guarantee that materials are put in the correct bin and, in the case of recyclables, aren’t contaminated. Brian at Biffa advises adding this to inductions for new starters and engaging existing staff via team training days.

Bakers having a meeting

Source: Getty Images / Hispanolistic

Ensuring staff buy in is crucial

“Gamify the process by assigning colours to different bins (e.g. brown for food waste, green for dry mixed recycling) and popping posters up. Not only should this engage them, but the reminders should also help create habits. In doing this, it will also raise awareness of the issues that can occur from contamination caused by improper disposal of recycling and food waste,” she adds.

It’s a process Biffa is familiar with, Brian highlights, having worked with bakery behemoth Greggs to educate staff on the between clean baking paper after baking food, and baking paper that had been coated with food/meat juices, to protect recycling from contamination. This formed part of the triumphant initiative which saw a partnership of Greggs, Biffa, and Linwood Raker secure Sustainability Initiative of the Year at the 2024 Baking Industry Awards.

Reducing costs, improving sustainability

Ensuring waste is separated properly is important, but it’s also worth taking a step back to reduce the amount of waste produced in the first place in alignment with the waste hierarchy – prevention, preparation for re-use, recycling, other recovery, and finally disposal.

“With 50-80% of food waste in professional kitchens avoidable, reducing your food waste in readiness for the new food waste legislation is possible,” enthuses Adrian Brown, managing director of Cofresco Foodservice, which manufactures and supplies cling film, foil, and baking parchment. “Using tactics such as menu planning, portion control and good storage can all help when it comes to reducing food waste,” Brown adds.

“With 50-80% of food waste in professional kitchens avoidable, reducing your food waste in readiness for the new food waste legislation is possible”

It’s hard to measure progress without measuring in the first place, so be sure to track the amount of food waste produced on a regular basis. This is something Cybake looked to address with its recent white paper – Making the move to a digital production planning tool – designed to help retail bakers and food-to-go operators maximise sales and reduce waste.

Identifying what is waste and what is surplus will also help with the latter open to more avenues.

Mobius, for example, has a sister company called SugaRich which recovers surplus from food manufacturers, distributors, and retailers to turn into animal feed ingredients. There is, however, a distinct difference between food waste and surplus, as Wycherley at Mobius explains: “Food that is a waste product, commonly from canteen and food preparation where meat and meat derivatives are utilised, will require well labelled bins, often colour-coded, at the point of production.”

A close-up of a selection of different types of biscuits

Source: Getty Images / al8er

Some baked goods can be repurposed into animal feed

If it is identified as food that has a further use within animal feed, SugaRich can provide bespoke solutions for the collection of this material in bulk.

“Similar segregation processes need to apply, however, with well labelled, colour-coded bins used at the point of production. It is hugely important that the segregation of food destined for animal feed is carried out accurately so as not to endanger the health of livestock,” Wycherley adds.

Share the surplus

But what about food fit for human consumption? There is a myriad of options for this, including working with food redistribution charities such as FareShare, The Felix Project, and apps like Too Good To Go.

London-based The Felix Project, for example, launched a tool last year designed to help the food industry reduce the amount of edible food going to waste. Dubbed Felix Connect, it connects firms with one-off food donations at risk of being thrown away to organisations feeding people in need. The automated service aims to prevent the organisation from turning down small, immediate, ad hoc, or quirky donations because it is unable to collect, store, or deliver food. 

Too Good To Go, meanwhile, works with more than 6,000 bakery partners including Gail’s, Greggs, Orée, and Costa as well as hundreds of independent bakeries across the UK who sell ‘Surprise Bags’ of assorted surplus food via the app for customers to pick up at a predetermined time of day.

It also recently extended its offering to work with FMCG brands and manufacturers through Too Good To Go Parcels, which allow consumers to have surplus delivered directly to their door.

A Too Good To Go Surprise Bag next to some sourdough loaves

Source: Too Good To Go

A Too Good To Go Surprise Bag

“By working with Too Good To Go, bakery businesses can unlock value from selling their surplus food, drive footfall, and reduce their food waste levels,” explains Alexandra Mason, head of key accounts UK&I at Too Good To Go. “Surprise Bags are sold at least 50% of their contents’ original retail value, allowing bakery businesses to recoup and optimise otherwise sunk costs.”

Mason also points to research from Too Good To Go which shows that 41% of customers purchase additional items when collecting their Surprise Bags.

Notably, the organisation can help any kind of food business that has genuine surplus food that is still perfectly edible, yet at risk of going to waste simply because it hasn’t sold in time. Although items past their ‘use by’ date cannot be placed into Surprise Bags, ones past a ‘best before’ can.

“There are many ways that bakeries can play their part including implementing accurate food waste reporting and measurements, training and motivating staff on the importance of reducing food waste, raising consumer awareness about food waste, finding ways to collaborate with providers and suppliers, utilising safety nets like Too Good To Go to avoid surplus food, and finally reconsidering date labels where possible (such as moving away from ‘best before’ labels),” she adds.