Recycling for charities and halls

Halls, shops and worship

Record the hall, shop or building as a site. If a hire of the hall produces food waste, the food collection has to be able to take it. Paper orders of service and cardboard are paper and card. Plastic, metal and glass may be collected together in England. A landlord or a local council may arrange the bins. Keep their written confirmation.

Volunteers, congregations and visitors do not count as full-time-equivalent staff. Employees do. A small charity with fewer than 10 full-time-equivalent staff is a micro-firm under the England dates.

Unsold goods in Wales

The Welsh code says unsold textiles are a separate stream. It also says that new, unused stock donated to a charity shop, which has never been sold to a consumer, can count as unsold if the shop then disposes of it. Second-hand goods are not “unsold” under that wording. Read the code before you sort a donation rail. England does not use that unsold-textiles stream in the same way.

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.

Do volunteers count towards the 10 full-time-equivalent figure?

No. The England figure is staff. Volunteers do not count.

Is a church hall a workplace?

If it is not a home, and it produces waste that is collected as business waste, use the workplace rules for the nation it is in. A hall in England uses the England streams.