Bakery Waste Management
When a bakery closes at the end of each day, there’s usually loads of food leftover. Sadly, lots of this can’t be sold and ends up going to waste. Plus, most bakeries will produce plenty of packaging and general waste during their daily operations that also needs disposing of properly.
As a business owner, it’s important that you put together a waste collection plan that’s as strong as the flour you use. Thankfully, Business Waste is on hand to help. We can provide daily, weekly, and fortnightly bakery waste collections to help get rid of little and large loafs of waste in as environmentally friendly a way as possible.
Contact us online or call 0800 211 8390 today for a free quote for bakery waste disposal from anywhere in the UK.
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Get a free quote
Get a fast FREE quote for your bakery waste collections
- Free quote within 1 hr
- Any type of bakery waste
- FREE bins and delivery
- We cover all of the UK
Bakery waste disposal
At Business Waste, we provide you with the upper crust in cost-effective waste management and disposal services. This means that we offer quality bakery waste services for an affordable price that fits your budget – however big your bakery and wherever its UK location.
There are various laws and regulations that cover commercial waste disposal, including all the food, packaging, and other rubbish your bakery produces. You probably don’t have time to get to grips with them all, which is where we come in. Our licensed waste carriers can collect any of your waste and take it to a nearby facility for proper disposal.
Disposal methods vary depending on the type of waste. This can include:
- Anaerobic digestion for food waste
- Dry mixed recycling for packaging
- Incineration to create renewable energy for general waste
We ensure your bakery waste is safely and ethically disposed of, working with environmental goals in mind and a zero landfill policy. This means by using the bakery waste services Business Waste provide, you help us move towards a more sustainable future. Wherever possible, we ensure any waste is recycled and treat landfill as a last resort.
Bakery waste
bins, bags, and containers
To comply with UK legislation, your bakery business must have an effective waste disposal plan in place. This means ensuring all your waste is stored safely before being collected and disposed of by a licensed waste carrier. We can provide a range of appropriate bins, bags, and containers to store your bakery waste.
- Wheelie bins are the most effective solution for storing food waste – probably the main type of rubbish your bakery generates. They rye-ly do the job and are available in sizes from 240 litres to 1100 litres. Dedicated food waste only bins come in only 240 litre size, while others can store general waste, paper, cardboard, and more packaging recycling. Our bins align with the rules rolled out by the FSA (Food Standards Agency) – they’re durable, easy to clean, and colour coded. Each one is also easy to seal, which reduces the chance of pest infestations, spillages, and cross-contamination. We can deliver one or more bin to you for free and we offer flexible changes as your business grows.
- Prepaid waste bags are perfect to securely store food waste in wheelie bins or in the bags alone if space is limited. You can also use them when business at your bakery is on the rise and you run out of bin space.
- Balers and compactors can store high volumes of dry mixed recyclables, including paper, cardboard, and some packaging waste.
Explore some of the most popular bins for bakeries.
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240 litre wheelie bins
The largest wheelie bin available that can be used purely for food waste.
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660 litre wheelie bin
A popular four-wheel bin to store general waste or dry mixed recycling.
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1100 litre wheelie bin
The largest wheelie bin available for high volumes of general waste or recycling types.
Bakery waste
collection
You deserve butter than the rest, so we make toast out of our competition when it comes to bakery waste collections. We’ll provide free bins to your business anywhere in the UK, you just pay for collection. Working with Business Waste means you don’t have to hire multiple vendors, as we collect different waste types all at once.
We have a flexible approach to your waste collection schedule. This means you can arrange for daily, weekly, or fortnightly collections depending on your needs, and can change the plan when you need. For example, you may need to arrange weekly food waste collection, but only need your recyclables removing monthly, there’s no knead to worry.
How much it costs for your bakery waste to be collected and disposed of depends on your location, the types of waste, size, and number of bins you have. We can help you work out the most cost-effective solution based on the leftover food, packaging, and other rubbish you regularly produce.
Don’t go against the grain, call 0800 211 8390 or contact us online for a free quote to ensure your waste collections never go stale. One of our expert and friendly team can advise on all sorts of commercial waste types your bakery produces to devise the best possible solution. Bready, steady, go!
How does bakery
waste collection work?
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Select your free bins
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Arrange delivery
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Fill up your bin
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Get your business waste collected
As featured in…
What is
bakery waste?
Understandably the main type of waste bakeries produce is food waste, whether it’s leftover cakes, half-eaten sandwiches, or burned biscuits. However, there are many other kinds of rubbish that bakery activities generate too. These can include:
- Food waste – leftover and inedible or unsellable food products and ingredients
- Packaging waste – plastic, cardboard, and other packaging for baked goods
- Metal trays – trays to store fresh bread and other bakery items
- Plastic trays – used to display a wide range of baked goods
- Kitchen equipment – broken and damaged utensils such as knives and rolling pins
- WEEE waste – broken and damaged electrical equipment like blenders
- PPE – aprons, hats, hairnets, gloves, and facemasks
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James was very helpful and to be honest since starting with this company the service has been excellent.Christeen Norfolk
Bakery waste
FAQs
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What happens to bread waste? Lots of waste bread from bakeries can go to recycling facilities for anaerobic digestion. This is a process where bacteria break down organic matter – such as food waste – to create biogas. Otherwise, bread waste may unfortunately end up in landfill, where it can contribute to greenhouse gases as it decomposes.
At Business Waste we try to avoid landfill wherever possible and strive to ensure as much food waste including waste bread goes to anaerobic digestors. Learn more about anaerobic digestion.
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What do bakers do with leftovers? What bakers do with leftovers depends on the processes in place at the bakery. Sadly, many bakery chains require leftovers to be counted and sent for disposal in landfill or incineration. There are other ways to better use leftovers from bakeries though, such as:
- Donating to local charities and homeless shelters.
- Turning into animal feed for farms.
- Converting the likes of waste bread into crumbs and croutons to create other baked goods.
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How long do bakeries keep bread? Most bakeries bake bread and sell it fresh on the day. Some will keep them on sale for two or more days if they’re in sealable, plastic packaging to retain freshness. In supermarkets they may be kept on the shelf for up to four days or until the best before date arrives.
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Why do bakeries throw away food? Sadly, many bakeries throw away food left over at the end of the day as some baked goods are deemed unsellable after 24 hours. The consumer demand for fresh bread and pastries means many people avoid buying bakery items that weren’t cooked that day.
Most bakeries also have health and safety policies to follow. These can demand any leftover food is thrown away or sent back to headquarters for counting, inspection, and controlled disposal.
Get a fast and free quote for bakery waste collection
Get a fast FREE quote for bakery waste disposal
- Free quote within 1 hr
- Any type of bakery waste
- FREE bins and delivery
- We cover all of the UK
Published 12th April 2022 by Mark Hall. Last modified 20th May 2025