South Yorkshire: Councils exempt from new food waste collection law

A waste treatment facility in Manvers already separates food waste from residual waste

Households in Barnsley, Rotherham and Doncaster will not have to recycle food waste separately when the law changes.

Council in England will be required to provide a weekly kerbside food waste collection from March 2026.

The law aims to cut the amount going to landfill and to ensure food waste does not sit in bins for weeks.

The three councils are exempt as a waste treatment facility at Manvers already separates food waste without the need for another bin.

The BDR waste treatment facility takes up to 250,000 tonnes of residual waste produced across Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham each year, and recycles food waste into "compost-like output".

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the facility is unique in the UK and combines a mechanical biological treatment facility and an anaerobic digestion plant to extract recycling.

The BDR waste treatment facility takes up to 250,000 tonnes of residual waste produced across the three boroughs each year

Matt O'Neill, executive director of growth and sustainability at Barnsley Council, said that when the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) consulted on recycling, the BDR Partnership looked at the carbon and financial benefits of separately collecting food waste.

"Since 2015, we've been processing food waste through anaerobic digestion at the facility, producing a compost-like output," he said.

"Our appraisal found that carbon gains would be relatively small, while costs would be high due to both impacts on our long-term contract and the need to procure a separate food waste processing contract."

Mr O'Neill said that after consideration, Defra granted the three councils transitional arrangements, which meant there was no requirement for food waste to be separately collected from households in the region at this time.

He added that the BDR Partnership would continue to review their services "to ensure the best environmental option not involving excessive costs are employed".

For the whole of 2023/24, only 0.5% of waste processed through the PFI contract went to landfill.