Biowaste Sorting: 7 Numbers Behind the EU Law

In this article

1. Why this deserves your attention now
2. The 7 numbers
3. How much biowaste does your kitchen produce — and what does sorting it save?
4. What to do with this, this week
5. The short version

Since 1 January 2024, it hasn't been a nice-to-have: every restaurant in the European Union has to keep its food waste separate from general waste, regardless of how small the kitchen is. Article 22 of the EU Waste Framework Directive made that a legal duty, and three countries show just how differently "mandatory" plays out in practice: France fines up to €75,000 and two years in prison, Germany simply leaves your bin at the curb if too much of the wrong thing is in it, and Belgium built the rule for large venues first and only made it universal later. Seven numbers lay out exactly what applies, what getting it right is worth, and what one ordinary service adds up to in your own kitchen.

A crate of vegetable peelings after lunch service, coffee grounds from twenty filters, the plate that comes back half-eaten from table twelve — every kitchen piles that up all shift long. Until recently it all went into the same general-waste bin as everything else, and nobody thought twice about it. That is no longer a choice. Since 1 January 2024, keeping that waste separate has been a legal requirement across the entire European Union — not a recommendation, not something aimed at large chains, but a hard rule that applies just as much to a two-person neighbourhood bistro as to a two-hundred-cover banqueting hall.

What that requirement means in practice differs sharply from country to country, and that difference is exactly what this article is about. France opened the tap all the way at once: no threshold at all, and fines that can reach €75,000 and two years in prison for the most serious breaches. Belgium built the rule up in stages — first only for venues serving more than fifty meals a day, and only since 2024 for everyone. And Germany doesn't just check whether you sort — it checks how well: too much of the wrong material in your bio-bin, and it simply stays at the curb, with a fine of up to €2,500 on top.

This is a different subject from the waste-prevention tips elsewhere on this site — cutting how much food you throw away by ordering smarter, or the broader sustainability tips that also touch packaging and energy. This article is specifically about the legal sorting duty: the point where "we just throw it all in together" stops being a habit and becomes a breach.

Seven numbers give the full picture: the day the rule became EU-wide law, how big the gap between the law and daily practice still is, the way France, Belgium and Germany each enforce their own version of it, how much biowaste an average restaurant actually produces, and the number that shows sorting properly doesn't just avoid fines — it also saves money. A calculator further down turns that into a concrete figure for your own kitchen.

Why this deserves your attention now

This isn't a law still on its way — it has been in force for more than two years already. Article 22 of the Waste Framework Directive (Directive 2008/98/EC as amended by Directive 2018/851) has been binding in every member state since 1 January 2024, and a restaurant still throwing its food waste in with general waste is breaking the law today — not a law that is coming.

The three countries in this article show just how differently "enforcement" can look, which is exactly why one general answer isn't enough. France works with escalating fines and, in the most serious cases, prison time. Germany doesn't enforce through a fine on the fact that you didn't sort — it enforces through the quality of what's actually in your bin, to the point where a bin that's simply too contaminated is left uncollected. Belgium built the rule up gradually, from a threshold for large venues to a universal duty, which means a small venue that still remembers the older rule may reasonably assume it doesn't apply — when that stopped being true in 2024.

This article is a practical summary for a restaurant that wants to know where it stands, not legal advice. Fines, exact wording and enforcement practice differ by country, by municipality and sometimes by waste hauler, and they keep changing. Treat this as the start of a conversation with your own municipality or waste contractor, not the end of one.

The 7 numbers

In the order that makes the most sense for a busy kitchen: first the date the rule became EU-wide law, then how far the sector still is from actually following it, then three countries that each enforce their own version of it, and finally the scale of the problem and the reason sorting properly also happens to save money.

1. 1 January 2024 — the day sorting became mandatory across the whole EU

Article 22 of the Waste Framework Directive requires every member state to ensure biowaste — food scraps, fruit and vegetable peel, coffee grounds, anything organic and compostable — is separated at source or collected separately. That duty has been binding since 1 January 2024, and it applies to every business that produces biowaste, with no exemption for size. A restaurant is unambiguously covered: any kitchen that cooks produces food scraps and peelings by definition.

What the directive does not do is dictate exactly how each country has to organise or enforce that — that's left to each member state, which is why France, Belgium and Germany each ended up with a different approach despite sharing the same underlying EU obligation. That's also why "is this mandatory in my country?" is the wrong question — the answer is yes everywhere, since the same date. The right question is which version of that duty applies where you are, and that's exactly what the numbers below explain.

Four moments that shaped the sorting duty, from the first Belgian threshold to the report that showed how big the gap with everyday practice still is.

1

1 Jan 2021 Flanders: mandatory above 50 meals/day OVAM first imposes the sorting duty on larger venues and banqueting halls above 250 seats — smaller restaurants fall outside the rule at this point.

2

1 Jan 2024 EU-wide: Article 22 becomes law for everyone The Waste Framework Directive becomes binding in every member state. France's loi AGEC goes universal the same day, and Flanders' 50-meal threshold disappears entirely.

3

1 May 2025 Germany raises the bar: quality, not just quantity The revised Bioabfallverordnung sets a maximum of 3% contamination — a bin over that limit is simply left uncollected.

4

2024–2025 74% still turns out not to be sorted Zero Waste Europe and the LIFE BIOBEST project report that most EU biowaste, more than a year after the deadline, is still landfilled or incinerated.

Nothing here is still waiting on a future date — every moment on this timeline has already happened.

2. 74% is still landfilled or incinerated

One year after the 1 January 2024 deadline, Zero Waste Europe, together with the LIFE BIOBEST project, reported that 74% of EU biowaste was still being landfilled or incinerated instead of collected separately and processed — this despite a law that had already been in force for a full year at that point. That figure isn't a technical footnote; it's the gap between what the law says and what actually happens in thousands of kitchens.

For an individual restaurant, that gap translates into something very concrete: the odds that an inspection catches your venue still throwing everything into general waste are real, precisely because so many other venues are doing the same thing. Enforcement typically targets the biggest and most obvious breaches first, and "we don't sort at all" is the clearest example of one. A restaurant that already sorts isn't just on the right side of the law — it also stands out from a sector that, on the whole, still isn't.

3. France: from €750 to €75,000 and 2 years in prison

The French loi AGEC (the law against waste and for a circular economy) imposed a universal sorting duty from 1 January 2024, with no threshold at all for the amount of waste involved. Every producer of biowaste, from the smallest snack bar to the grandest fine-dining house, has to keep it separate and have it collected or compost it themselves.

The fines are layered. The base offence — simply not sorting — can cost up to €750 for an individual and up to €3,750 for a company. On top of that base fine, an administrative penalty can reach €15,000, and for the most serious, repeated or organised breaches French law provides for a penalty of up to €75,000 and two years' imprisonment. That last figure is exceptional and mainly targets venues that knowingly and systematically ignore the rule, but it shows how seriously French lawmakers treat the subject — this isn't a fine you shrug off and carry on.

4. Belgium: from 50 meals a day to everyone

Flanders built its sorting duty in two stages, through OVAM. Since 1 January 2021, restaurants serving more than fifty meals a day — and banqueting halls with more than two hundred and fifty seats — already had to keep their kitchen waste and food scraps separate. Smaller venues fell outside the rule at that point.

That threshold disappeared entirely on 1 January 2024. The obligation has applied to every hospitality business in Flanders since then, regardless of how many meals cross the counter each day. A small neighbourhood venue that still remembers the old fifty-meal rule, and reasonably assumes it's too small to count, has been wrong since that date — exactly the kind of misunderstanding worth knowing about.

5. Germany: 3% contamination, and your bin simply stays put

The revised German Bioabfallverordnung has been in force since 1 May 2025, and it shifts the focus from "do you sort at all" to "how pure is what you're presenting". The rule sets a maximum of 3% foreign material ("Fremdstoffanteil"), measured by weight, in the bio-bin — plastic packaging, food still in its wrapper, cutlery that ended up in there by accident. A future phase targets an even stricter 1% cap.

Go over that 3%, and there's no fine landing in the post while the bin still gets emptied as usual — the bin simply stays at the curb. The collection service is allowed to refuse a contaminated container, leaving a restaurant with a full, uncollected bin until the problem is fixed. On top of that immediate inconvenience, a fine of up to €2,500 can follow. For a kitchen, this means sorting on its own isn't enough — what actually ends up in that bin matters just as much.

This is exactly what Germany's 3% rule is about — what ends up in the wrong bin is what makes a sorting effort fail.

Biowaste

Compostable, collected separately

• Fruit and vegetable peel, trim
• Plate scrapings and kitchen food waste
• Coffee grounds and tea bags (staple removed)
• Eggshells and bones
• Spoiled or out-of-date food, unwrapped

General waste

Whatever doesn't belong anywhere else

• Greasy napkins and heavily soiled paper towel
• Contaminated cardboard that can't be recycled
• Cigarette butts and ash
• Vacuum bags and sweepings
• Broken small items with no material value

Recycling

Packaging, glass, cardboard — kept separate

• Empty drink cans and bottles
• Clean, dry cardboard and paper
• Glass bottles and jars
• Plastic packaging from deliveries
• Metal trays and foil, empty and dry

Exact rules differ by municipality and waste hauler — this is the general split that applies in most EU countries, not a substitute for your own collector's instructions.

6. 15 kg per inhabitant: why restaurants are the target

According to Eurostat, the EU generated an average of 132 kg of food waste per inhabitant in 2022, and restaurants together with the broader food-service sector accounted for 11% of that — roughly 15 kg per inhabitant per year, from exactly the sector this article is about. That number explains why lawmakers didn't overlook hospitality when drafting this directive: added up across the whole Union, it's a sector that generates a meaningful share of all food waste.

For an individual venue, that 15 kg figure might feel abstract next to today's crate of peelings, but the calculator further down in this article turns it into something concrete for your own number of covers. A well-sorted stream of that weight isn't just less waste going to landfill — it's also, as the seventh and final number shows, a stream that costs less to have collected than if it stayed mixed in with general waste.

7. Up to 46% off your waste bill — the reason that has nothing to do with fines

Research into hospitality waste costs in the UK shows a clear price gap: separately collected food waste typically costs around £50 to £80 per tonne to collect and process, while general waste — often landfilled, with landfill tax on top — tends to run £170 to £250 per tonne. For a venue producing around 150 kg of food waste a day, that gap can translate into savings of several thousand pounds a year according to those same sources; across the whole waste bill — including less frequent general-waste collections — it can add up to as much as 46% lower total waste costs.

These figures come from UK sources and are illustrative, not fixed EU-wide rates — your own waste hauler sets the real tariff in your region, and that differs by municipality and by country. The underlying principle does hold more broadly: because food waste is heavy and landfill is taxed, it's financially advantageous to take it out of the general-waste stream rather than leave it in. Sorting, in other words, isn't just following the law — in most cases, it's also the cheaper option.

How much biowaste does your kitchen produce — and what does sorting it save?

The seven numbers above explain the law. They don't say anything about what that actually means for your own venue, with your own number of covers and your own opening days.

Enter your average covers per day and how many days a week you're open, tick whether you already sort separately, and the tool estimates how much biowaste your kitchen is likely producing — and what proper sorting could be worth per year.

Treat this result as a guide, not an invoice: the real weight of your biowaste and the real price of your collection depend on your menu, your portions and the contract your venue already has. If in doubt, ask your waste hauler for an actual quote for both general waste and separately collected biowaste, and compare them yourself.

Want a clearer picture of how much food you're throwing away before it ever leaves the kitchen in the first place? Our free stock and waste-tracking tool gives you a concrete weekly answer to that, and if you want to match your ordering more closely to what actually sells, our free ordering and delivery schedule gives you a fixed place to track that every week.

What to do with this, this week

This duty has been in force since 1 January 2024 — which means none of the steps below can wait for a quieter moment.

This week

• Check with your municipality or your current waste hauler whether your venue already has a separate biowaste bin or contract — and if not, request one straight away.
• Put the split from the graphic above up somewhere visible at your kitchen's waste station, so the whole team follows the same rules, not just whoever happens to be on shift today.
• Use the tool above to work out roughly how much biowaste your venue produces, and compare that weight against what your current waste contract already charges you.

This month

• Get a quote for separately collected biowaste alongside your existing general-waste contract, and compare the two — the price gap from number seven is often bigger than expected.
• If you're in Germany, or considering moving to a more strictly enforced municipality, check specifically what counts as "contamination" in your bin, so a full container isn't left uncollected over something easily avoided.
• Set out clearly and concretely for the team what does and doesn't belong in the biowaste bin — the graphic above is a good starting point, but your own kitchen almost certainly has a few edge cases of its own.

For every new team member

• Fold the sorting duty into onboarding, alongside fire safety or allergen policy — it's now just as firmly a legal requirement.
• Name one fixed point of contact who knows which contract the venue has and who to call if a bin wasn't collected.
• Repeat the split from number six after the first few shifts — a new team member who heard it once rarely remembers which bin which peeling belongs in.

The short version

Since 1 January 2024, keeping biowaste separate hasn't been good practice — it's a legal duty, in every EU member state, with no exemption for the size of the venue. France enforces it with escalating fines up to €75,000 and prison time for the most serious cases, Belgium built the rule up from a large-venue threshold to a universal duty, and Germany looks specifically at how pure what you're presenting actually is.

74% of EU biowaste still isn't collected separately, which means a venue that gets it right stands out against a sector that, on the whole, still doesn't — exactly the kind of difference an inspection notices first. And the financial argument stands apart from any fine: separately collected biowaste is typically cheaper to have collected than general waste, which makes sorting the rare legal duty that doesn't just avoid costs — it actively saves them.

The calculator above turns that into a concrete figure for your own kitchen. What matters after that isn't the theory but the habit: a clear split at the waste station, a contract that actually collects separately, and a team that knows where every peeling belongs — three things that can start this week, not at the next inspection.