NI food waste law for businesses takes effect

Northern Irish businesses are now required to separate and recycle food waste after a new law came into effect last week (1 April).

Under the ‘Food Waste Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015’, food businesses in Northern Ireland must now segregate and arrange the collection of their food waste if they produce 50 kilogrammes (kg) or more per week. Fines for not complying with the law range from fixed-penalty notices of £300 to fines of £10,000 for repeated non-compliance.

Guidance published by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency describes a ‘food business’ as ‘an undertaking, whether carried on for profit or not, and whether public or private, carrying out any activity related to the processing, distribution, preparation or sale of food’. These therefore include restaurants and cafes as well as hotels, supermarkets, nursing homes and schools.

Businesses that produce less than 50kg of food waste will have no obligations to provide separate collection under the regulations until April 2017. However, from 1 April 2017, food businesses producing more than 5kg of food waste every week will be required to facilitate separate collection.

The regulations also introduce a duty on businesses to ensure food waste is not deposited in a lateral drain or sewer from 1 April 2017.

According to the guidance, ‘appropriate systems should be established by a business that generates food waste to segregate and store it, to maintain quality prior to its collection’. It continues: ‘The best way a business that produces food waste can promote high quality recycling of this waste stream is to segregate it, to ensure that separate collection is possible by a waste management service provider.’

The new legislation follows a similar law introduced in Scotland in January 2014. In the six months following the implementation of the Scottish regulations – which also applied to businesses producing 50kg of food waste, and then 5kg from this year – operators of anaerobic digestion (AD) plants reported an estimated increase of 10-20 per cent in tonnages, according to Zero Waste Scotland.

Biffa issues SME warning

Earlier this year, waste management company Biffa commissioned a survey of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Scotland to gauge the impact of the regulations on such businesses. The results demonstrated a number of changes that firms within the food industry have had to implement to accommodate the new requirements, including displaying new signage for staff (59 per cent), reducing the amount of food waste produced (47 per cent), providing training to staff (46 per cent), allocating larger containers for food waste (30 per cent) and appointing a new waste provider (24 per cent). However, the survey also suggested that 35 per cent of Scottish SME respondents were unaware of the financial implications for failing to comply with the legislation.

The company has warned that SMEs in Northern Ireland may struggle to fulfil the obligations set out by the regulation. Biffa’s regional general manager Barry Crews said: “Currently Scotland is leading the way in dealing with food waste and indeed, Zero Waste Scotland legislation has been in place since January 1 2014, to require food businesses producing 50kg or more of food waste a week to have a separate food waste recycling stream. Now the focus is on Northern Ireland with producers being required to segregate their food waste if they generate 50kg or more of food waste a week.

“This requirement to the business community across Northern Ireland may lead to a rise in breaches and potential for financial penalties. This could create another burden on SMEs in particular, who sometimes don’t have the capacity or finances to ensure they are compliant with every single legal requirement.

“Our survey demonstrates that a third are unaware of the potential financial implications of a breach, something which could severely cripple a small business, with one in four admitting they couldn’t afford to pay a financial penalty. Food businesses are advised to ensure they are fully compliant now, before financial penalties can be issued.”