Almost all commercial premises have recycling bins. Over the past few years the number of different bins required has grown and it can be a bit confusing as to what goes in which bin, let alone if the recycling is as effective as the business thinks it is.
Dry mixed recycling, or DMR, is the term for recyclable materials that can be collected together in a single container and sorted mechanically at a processing facility. It’s one of the waste streams every UK business with ten or more full-time equivalent employees has been required to separate since 2025 and the start of the Simpler Recycling regulations. Smaller businesses will be following suit in March 2027. If you get it right, DMR is one of the cheapest streams to manage. Get it wrong, and it can cost more than your general waste bin.
What goes into a commercial dry mixed recycling bin?
DMR is those items that can be sorted and processed without needing to be separated at source. Cardboard and paper are the obvious ones – delivery boxes, packaging, office print paper, envelopes. Plastic bottles and trays can go in, as long as they’re reasonably clean. So can metal tins, cans and aluminium. Most of what builds up in a typical office back room or retail loading bay throughout the week will be DMR-eligible.
Where things get less obvious is packaging that’s had food or liquid in it. An empty ketchup bottle that’s been rinsed out: yes. A ready-meal tray with sauce still in it: no. It depends on whether the item is clean and dry enough to go through a sorting facility without contaminating everything around it.
What definitely doesn’t belong in a commercial dry mixed recycling bin is food waste, glass, polystyrene, soft plastic films (like carrier bags, bubble wrap and cling film) or anything hazardous. In the world of DMR, these are contaminants and are commonly found in commercial recycling loads.
The contamination problem and what it costs
Contamination is where good intentions go wrong. A bin that looks like it’s being used correctly – full of cardboard and plastic – can still be a problem if the wrong things are in there.
When a load arrives at a processing facility with contamination above a certain threshold, it gets rejected. The whole thing gets reclassified as general waste and sent for disposal rather than recycling. You’ll become aware of this when your business ends up paying commercial waste disposal rates, including the embedded cost of landfill tax at £130.75 per tonne, for material you were expecting to recycle at lower cost.
When it comes to the bottom line, DMR collections are typically cheaper than general waste, and contaminated loads that get rejected are about as expensive as waste gets.
The businesses most likely to have contamination problems aren’t always the careless ones. Sometimes it’s the ones that are trying. Putting an item in the recycling bin because it feels like it should be recyclable, without checking whether it actually is, is one of the most common routes to a rejected load.
Why glass goes separately
So why can’t glass can go in with other dry mixed recyclables? The Government’s Simpler Recycling framework technically allows for co-collection in certain circumstances. But in practice, most waste processors don’t have the equipment to separate glass from other materials once it’s been mixed in, and the contamination risk it creates – particularly broken glass in a load of cardboard – makes it unworkable for most commercial waste collections.
Glass needs its own container and its own collection. That makes sure your glass waste stream is actually recycled rather than contaminating everything else.
Food waste must be kept separate by law
Food waste is the other stream businesses most commonly get wrong. It has to be separated. Under Simpler Recycling, any business with ten or more full-time equivalent employees must arrange a dedicated food waste collection – stored in its own container, collected by a licensed carrier.
The reason for food separation is partly environmental and partly practical. Food waste sent to anaerobic digestion generates renewable energy and produces natural fertiliser. Food waste in landfill generates methane. But if you put food in a recycling bin, it contaminates everything around it. Half a sandwich in a paper bin doesn’t just mean the sandwich isn’t recycled. It can mean the paper and cardboard in the same container aren’t either.
Choosing the right commercial recycling bins for your business
Dry mixed recycling bins for commercial use come in a range of sizes. Most small to medium businesses work well with a 240-litre bin or 360-litre bin collected weekly – they’re big enough for a week’s worth of DMR without taking up the whole loading bay. Busier operations, or those generating significant cardboard volumes, tend to move up to 660-litre or 1,100-litre commercial wheelie bins. At 360 Waste Management, commercial recycling bins are supplied free of charge as part of the service, so there’s no equipment cost to factor in when reviewing your setup.
Cardboard is worth thinking about separately, especially for retail businesses and operations that take in a lot of deliveries. Where volumes are high, a dedicated cardboard collection is often more efficient than mixing it into a general DMR bin – flattened boxes are dense and fill containers much more slowly than everything else, making cardboard one of the most cost-effective streams to handle on its own.
Separating DMR and general waste adds up financially
General commercial waste disposal is more expensive than dry mixed recycling, and that gap has been widening. Every tonne of recyclable material that ends up in a general waste bin is costing more than it needs to. At the scale of a multi-site business or a high-volume operation, that difference can quick add up.
The landfill tax rate at £130.75 per tonne is part of every general waste invoice. Material that goes to dry mixed recycling avoids it. That’s a direct financial argument for getting the bin setup right.
Good business waste management means actively managing which materials go where, not just having the right bins on site. A good commercial waste management company will do more than collect what you throw out – they’ll review your current setup, identify where recyclables are leaking into general waste, and adjust your collection schedule so bins aren’t overfilling between collections. There is a huge difference between commercial waste management companies that just run collections and those that engage with your waste setup, and it shows up in the cost over time.
Frequently Asked Questions: Commercial Dry Mixed Recycling
What is dry mixed recycling and what can go in it?
Dry mixed recycling is a combined collection of clean, dry recyclable materials – cardboard, paper, plastic bottles and packaging, metal tins and cans. As the name suggests, contents need to be dry (not food-contaminated) and they’re mixed in together. Food, glass, soft plastic films and hazardous materials should not go in a DMR bin.
Is my business required to have a dry mixed recycling collection?
If your business has ten or more full-time equivalent employees, yes. Since March 2025, Simpler Recycling regulations require businesses of this size to arrange separate collections for dry mixed recycling, food waste and general waste, with glass collected separately too. Businesses with fewer than ten FTE have until March 2027 to comply.
What size commercial recycling bin does my business need?
That depends on how much dry recyclable material your business generates each week. A small office might be well served by a single 240-litre bin on a weekly commercial wheelie bin collection. A retail business, a warehouse or anywhere with significant cardboard output will often need larger containers – or more frequent collections. The best way to find out is a waste audit, which a commercial waste management company should be able to carry out at no charge.
What happens if the wrong things go into a commercial dry mixed recycling bin?
Contamination – food, glass, liquids or non-recyclable materials – can cause a load to be rejected at the processing facility. It’s then reclassified as general waste and disposed of at higher cost, including landfill tax. This is why staff training and clear bin labelling matter: a contaminated load costs more to deal with than properly separated general waste.
Can I put glass in with dry mixed recycling?
No, not in most commercial waste collections. Most processors handling commercial dry mixed recycling don’t have the facilities to separate glass from other materials once it’s been mixed in. Glass needs to be collected in a dedicated bin. If you’re currently putting glass in with DMR, it’s worth speaking to your commercial waste management company to confirm how the load is being processed.
Get Your DMR Setup Right with 360 Waste Management
360 Waste Management provides commercial dry mixed recycling collections across London, Essex and Kent, with free bins supplied in a range of sizes and no long-term contracts. Whether you’re setting up a recycling arrangement for the first time, or you’re not sure whether what you currently have in place is compliant and cost-effective, we can help.
Get a free waste audit today. Call 01892 240541, email operationsteam@360recycling.co.uk or get an instant quote at 360wastemanagement.co.uk.
