Plans to end ‘Wild West’ of recycling as councils to be told to give four bins

In a massive shake up that could affect millions of households across the UK, the government are coming for your bins. Under new plans it is said that councils will be told to give people up to four bins per house as a “default” to seperate waste.

This is in a bid to end the “Wild West” approach to recycling. Currently there’s no standard approach to how many bins people get in different constituencys.

In fact, in some councils’ people are asked to seperate their waste in as many as 10 different bins, with reports showing that a third of households have five or more bins, but this could soon come to a screaming halt.

The Times are reporting that under the new plans, councils will be told to issue households and workplaces with four containers, either bags or bins. This will include a bin for non-recyclable waste, a bin for food waste mixed with garden waste, a bin or bag for paper and card, and a bin or bag for other recyclable waste.

Announcing the changes, Steve Reed, the environment secretary, said that the new rules would end the “postcode lottery” of recycling, and reduce flytipping. “After 14 years of Conservative failure, communities face an avalanche of rubbish plaguing our streets and poisoning our rivers and seas,” he said. “Today we end the fiasco that would force households across the country to have seven bins.

“This Labour government is ending the Wild West and introducing a streamlined approach to recycling to end the postcode lottery, simplify bin collections and clean up our streets for good.”

The new approach is designed to end the confusion created by the Environment Act 2021, which defined recyclable materials as glass, metal, plastic, paper and card, and food waste. The approach led some councils to give out individual bins for each material, as well as for non-recyclable waste.

But ministers say this doesn’t work and hope that the new approach will make it less confusing to recycle, and therefore more popular.

However, although many households could have fewer bins – some may end up with more.

A recent survey by the Taxpayers’ Alliance found that three areas of the country; Blaenau Gwent, Cotswold and Merthyr Tydfil — had ten bin types, while Gosport had only two. More than 50 councils had six or more bins for collection, and the average was four.

Ministers say that the separate collection of paper and card will reduce the risk of materials being contaminated by food and liquids from other recycling. Contaminated material can be rejected after collection if it is not viable for processing.

There has been a waste sorting limbo after former prime minister Rishi Sunak scrapped a Conservative policy that would require local authorities to collect waste in up to seven separate containers. It had been widely criticised and councils said it would cost £500 million a year to implement.

Rishi Sunak announced in 2023 that he was binning off the “burdensome” policy, however the guidance was not formally changed and it was left to councils to decide for themselves how many bins households would need.

The District Councils’ Network said the move had created a “policy vacuum” that had left councils unable to take decisions on how to improve waste services because they did not know whether their plans would be in accordance with the government’s rules.

Adam Hug, the Local Government Association’s environment spokesman, cautiously welcomed the new plan, but warned that it could still present logistical challenges.

He said: “We are pleased the government has listened and decided to allow councils to return some of the flexibility in how to collect waste from people’s homes. However, the separate collection of paper and card will require additional resources and time for implementation from April 2026.

“It’s also very important different councils have local flexibility where the additional bin is not practical, for instance due to inadequate space.”

He added that councils remained concerned about plans to require businesses to follow new recycling rules from next April, saying that “awareness and readiness” were low.

He said: “We believe there should be a one-year delay to align with household recycling changes.”