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GuidesEngland

Recycling records for care homes

Last reviewed 25 October 2026

Care homes in England produce kitchen food waste, paper and card, packaging and general waste. Those follow the workplace streams. Clinical waste, medicines and incontinence waste that your clinical contractor takes are a different duty. They stay out of SortProof and out of the recycling bins.

Four England streams: food waste, paper and card, plastic metal and glass together, and general waste.
Paper and card stay separate unless a written assessment is on file.

Kitchens and the ordinary bins

Meal waste and kitchen scraps are food waste and are collected separately in England once the duty applies. The date uses the organisation’s full-time-equivalent staff, not the number of residents. Cardboard from deliveries and office paper are paper and card. Plastic, metal and glass may be collected together.

A group with several homes counts staff across the business for the England date. Record each home as a site when the bins or the landlord differ.

Clinical waste stays separate

Do not put clinical waste, sharps or medicines into the food, paper or dry recycling, and do not upload them as ordinary recycling evidence. Keep the clinical contractor’s paperwork in the clinical file.

A care home in Scotland that prepares food is a food business in the Scottish examples, so the 5kg food duty can apply. A care home in Wales uses the Welsh streams. A care home in Northern Ireland that is a food business uses the food-waste duty. If the site is in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, read the guide for that nation. The streams and dates there are different. The free check on SortProof uses the England rules.

In short

  1. Record each home as a site.
  2. Keep kitchen food waste in the food collection.
  3. Keep clinical waste out of the recycling and out of SortProof.
  4. File the ordinary collection contract separately from the clinical contract.
  5. Use the nation guide when the home is not in England.

Questions

Do residents count towards full-time-equivalent staff?

No. The England date uses staff, not residents.

Does this cover incontinence or clinical waste?

No. Use the clinical waste arrangements. This guide is the ordinary workplace recycling only.

Related guides

SortProof stores the record you enter. It is guidance, not a certificate, and it is not issued by Defra or the Environment Agency.

Official sources