Waste (Scotland) Regulations
Scotland’s waste regulations have changed for all organisations, whether private public or voluntary. Since 1 January 2014, the Waste (Scotland) Regulations have been in force.
All organisations operating in Scotland, big and small, should be recycling their plastic, metal, glass, paper and card or risk a fine. Most food businesses will also have to recycle their food waste.
What has changed?
The Waste (Scotland) Regulations require that any and all organisations in Scotland present the following materials for recycling:
- Glass (including drinks bottles & rinsed empty food jars);
- Metal (including cans, tins);
- Plastic (including, drinks bottles & rinsed empty food containers);
- Paper;
- Cardboard;
- Most urban food businesses will need to present food waste separately for collection
Food businesses
Urban food businesses (such as cafés, restaurants or food takeaways) which produce over 5 kg of food waste per week also have to present food waste separately for collection unless excluded by a rural location.
A food business is defined as “An undertaking, whether for profit or not, and whether public or private, carrying out any activity related to the processing, distribution, preparation or sale of food”. This excludes businesses which only prepare and sell drinks.
When a premises is used to consume food brought from elsewhere e.g. an office where staff bring in food for personal consumption, are not regarded as food businesses. However, a staff canteen where food is prepared, sold and consumed is classed as a food business. The following type of organisations are likely to be affected by the Regulations; hotels, restaurants, cafés, shopping centre food courts, canteens, public houses or shops that serve food, supermarkets, schools and colleges with canteens, prisons, nursing homes and hospitals.
Use the postcode finder tool to see whether your business area is considered to be rural or non-rural.
Key details:
- Disposing of food waste into public drains or sewers is illegal.
- Where collections are available, it will be illegal to dispose of food waste into a public drain or sewer
- Any urban / non-rural business or organisation which produces food waste will have a duty to ensure that it is not deposited directly or indirectly into a public drain or sewer.
- Food waste disposers such as macerators cannot be used to discharge food waste to a drain or sewer in a non-rural area where a separate food waste collection service is available.
- Systems which dewater food waste at source and store the solid material for collection and treatment are an acceptable form of management, but only if the loss of solid matter to sewers is minimal. Systems like enzymatic digesters which do not recover any organic waste prior to it going to sewer are banned under the Regulations as the food waste is all going into the sewer.
- There is no legal requirement for macerators to be removed however your organisation may choose to remove macerators to prevent staff using them and avoid the risk of a fine. Businesses are also liable to prosecution under Section 46 of the Sewerage (Scotland) Act 1968 which makes it an offence to discharge any substance into the public sewer likely to obstruct its free flow. Disposing of food waste to the drain could also result in flooding within your (and surrounding) business premises.
- There is evidence to suggest that fat, oils and grease cause the majority of drain blockages and further legislation is underway to deal with this specific problem.
For answers to frequently asked questions, please refer to our Waste Regulation FAQs.