New bin rules begin in England but not all councils are ready

New bin rules begin in England but not all councils are ready 34 minutes ago Share Save Ema Sabljak , England Data Unit, and Alix Hattenstone , BBC England Share Save New rules requiring weekly food waste collections for all homes in England have come into force, but dozens of councils are still not ready to provide the service. An earlier BBC investigation found 79 English councils - the equivalent of one in four - did not expect to meet the March 31 deadline. Councils blamed the delay on demand for new specialist vehicles and funding issues, despite the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs giving out more than £340m in grants. Defra said it would continue to work with local authority waste networks and the wider industry, providing targeted support to help address outstanding issues. WRAP, a non-governmental climate action organisation, called the Simpler Recycling rules "the biggest shake-up in recycling policy in England in 20 years". When recycled separately, food waste can be used to produce electricity. This reduces the amount of waste rotting in landfill and releasing greenhouse gases. It is also hoped that making food waste collections available to all homes will encourage people to reduce how much food they waste in the first place. What do the new recycling rules mean? According to Defra's Simpler Recycling guidance , from 31 March, waste collectors must collect the following separately: Food and garden waste Paper and card - although depending on where you live, this can be grouped with other dry recyclables All other dry recyclable materials (glass, metal and plastic, including cartons) Residual waste - this is the rubbish that cannot be recycled and so is sent to landfill or for energy recovery Roughly half of councils were not collecting food waste weekly before the creation of the new legislation, while some have had the collections in place for more than a decade. This meant not all councils needed to make changes to meet the new rules, ...