Rotherham, Doncaster and Barnsley exempt from new kerbside food waste collection law

In March 2026, councils in England will be required to provide weekly kerbside food waste collections, cutting landfill while ensuring food waste does not sit in bins for weeks awaiting collection.

However, in Barnsley, Rotherham and Doncaster, food waste is already separated at a treatment centre in Manvers, where it is recycled into ‘compost-like output’.

The BDR (Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham) waste treatment facility takes up to 250,000 tonnes of residual waste produced across the three boroughs each year.

The facility is unique in the UK and combines a mechanical biological treatment facility and an anaerobic digestion plant to extract recycling and make as much use as possible from waste.

Matt O’Neill, executive director of growth and sustainability at Barnsley Council, said: “When Defra (Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs) consulted on consistency in recycling, our BDR Partnership undertook an options appraisal to determine the carbon and financial benefits of separately collecting food waste weekly.

“Since 2015, we’ve been processing food waste through anaerobic digestion at the facility, producing a compost-like output.

“Our appraisal found that carbon gains would be relatively small, while costs would be high.

“Defra considered the response and have granted Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham councils transitional arrangements, which means there is no requirement for food waste to be separately collected from households in the region at this time.

“For the whole of 23/24, of all the waste that was processed through the PFI contract, only 0.5 per cent of waste went to landfill.”