GuidesEngland
Recycling records for takeaways
Last reviewed 25 October 2026
A takeaway in England produces food waste in the kitchen and packaging out the door. Food waste from preparation stays in its own collection. Cardboard and paper packaging are paper and card. Plastic, metal and glass may be collected together. Packaging the customer takes away is still your workplace’s waste while it is in your premises.
Kitchen waste and packaging
Prep scraps, unused food and oil-free food leftovers are food waste. Keep them out of the cardboard. Pizza boxes and other card that are too soiled for the collector’s paper stream may have to go to general waste. Ask the collector what they will accept, and write that down. Do not put soiled card into a clean paper collection.
The England date follows your staff total. A single takeaway with fewer than 10 full-time-equivalent staff across the business is a micro-firm until 31 March 2027. That date does not apply in the other nations.
Takeaways in the other nations
Scotland’s food duty covers businesses that prepare or sell food, once they produce 5kg or more a week, unless a published exemption applies. The Scottish code says waste from food the customer takes away and then discards off the premises is not that food duty. Food waste produced in the kitchen still is. Wales uses the 5kg in seven days test for the premises. Northern Ireland uses the 5kg-a-week food-business duty and the sewer ban.
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
- Record the takeaway as a site.
- Keep kitchen food waste in its own collection.
- Keep clean cardboard separate from plastic and cans.
- Ask the collector about soiled paper packaging and follow what they will take.
- File the contract or the landlord’s confirmation.
Questions
Are pizza boxes paper and card?
Clean card is paper and card. Card that is soaked with food often cannot go in the paper stream. Ask the collector and record their answer.
The landlord’s bin store has one bin. What should we do?
You still need the streams separated. Ask for written confirmation of the collections they provide.
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.