Schools food waste collection service design

From 31st March 2025 it is a legal requirement for businesses and relevant non-domestic premises in England to arrange for the collection of a number of core recyclable waste streams, including food waste. Cheshire West Recycling (CWR) are well placed to provide an efficient food waste service for schools across the Cheshire West and Chester authority area, building on existing infrastructure, expertise and food waste treatment routes established over a number of years. 

Circulogic was engaged to support the scoping of the schools food waste service at the end of 2024, drawing on our expertise in commercial food waste collections and assessing uptake / performance across many schools (most recently in Wales). Key stages of the work comprised:

1. Creation of a demand plan: a database of schools with their estimated food waste collection needs (bin numbers) based on the schools type and pupil numbers

2. Estimation of the additional collection workload (time and weight) based on the school type and location, i.e. its proximity to adjacent food waste collection points

3. Assessment of spare capacity within CWR's existing food waste collection rounds, analysed in terms of time and weight by collection day / zone

4. Financial analysis to ensure the additional costs of undertaking food waste collections from schools are adequately covered by the proposed charges. Through creation of a bespoke cost model it was possible to demonstrate the service is able to operate with financial independence, representing a key requirement for internal approval to proceed

This was a great example of a data-driven project, drawing on local operational data combined with Circulogic's schools food waste collection parameters to create a blueprint for the service.