Section 52 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 provides that where someone other than a waste collection authority collects waste for recycling, both the waste disposal authority and the waste collection authority may make payments to that person, reflecting the net saving in disposal expenditure the arrangement produces.

The basic mechanism

Section 52 addresses a specific situation: waste that would otherwise have gone through council collection and disposal is instead collected for recycling by someone else, such as a charity running a collection scheme or a community group. Because the council no longer has to collect or dispose of that waste itself, it makes a saving, and section 52 allows some of that saving to be passed on to the organisation that actually did the collecting, as an incentive and a form of recognition for the recycling that has taken place instead of ordinary disposal.

Two separate payments

The section separates the waste disposal function from the waste collection function, reflecting how local government waste responsibilities are often split between different authorities. Subsection (3) allows a waste disposal authority to make payments, in respect of waste collected for recycling by someone else, to that person. Subsection (4) gives waste collection authorities a similar power to pay a third party that collects recyclable waste. In an area where collection and disposal are handled by different councils, a charity or group could in principle receive a payment connected to each function, reflecting the saving made at each level.

How the amount is worked out

The payments are tied to the net saving of expenditure on disposal of the waste that the authority would otherwise have incurred. This means the credit is not an arbitrary sum decided case by case without reference to actual costs; it is meant to reflect what the council itself avoided spending because the waste was recycled by someone else instead of being collected and disposed of through the ordinary route.

Discretionary in most cases

As drafted, section 52 generally gives authorities a power to make these payments rather than an absolute duty to do so in every case; a council may make a payment, reflecting some discretion in how and whether individual arrangements are set up and funded, rather than every recycling collection by a third party automatically generating a fixed, guaranteed credit regardless of the authority’s own position.

Where mandatory duties can apply

The section also allows for this discretion to be overridden in defined circumstances. For England, the Secretary of State has power to impose a duty on waste disposal authorities to make these payments in specified circumstances, rather than leaving it entirely discretionary; a separate provision allows the equivalent to be done by regulations in Wales. Where such a duty has been imposed for a particular type of arrangement, payment stops being simply a matter of the authority’s discretion and becomes a legal requirement instead.

Why this matters for community and charity collections

For a charity, school, or community group running a collection scheme for items such as textiles, books or scrap metal, understanding that this mechanism exists is a starting point for asking the relevant council whether a recycling credit arrangement applies to their collection, rather than assuming that collecting recyclable waste on the council’s behalf, in effect, is necessarily unpaid. Because the specific arrangements and amounts vary by authority and are not standardised nationally, checking directly with the relevant waste disposal and waste collection authorities is the practical next step for an organisation considering or already running this kind of scheme.

FAQs

Can a charity get paid for collecting recyclable waste instead of the council?

Potentially, yes. Section 52 lets a waste disposal authority and a waste collection authority each pay a third party who collects waste for recycling instead of the council.

How is the payment amount decided?

It reflects the net saving in disposal expenditure the authority makes because the waste was recycled by someone else instead of being collected and disposed of by the council.

Is a council required to make these payments?

Generally it is a discretionary power, though the Secretary of State in England, or regulations in Wales, can turn this into a mandatory duty in specified circumstances.

Could a group receive a payment from both the waste disposal and waste collection authority?

In principle, yes, where the two functions are held by different authorities in the relevant area, since section 52 gives each authority its own separate power to pay.

Bottom line

Section 52 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 lets waste disposal and waste collection authorities pay recycling credits to charities and community groups that collect waste for recycling instead of the council, based on the disposal costs the authority saves as a result. Payment is generally discretionary, though it can be made a legal duty in specified circumstances. This is general information, not legal advice; a charity or community group can raise the possibility of a recycling credit arrangement directly with the relevant council.

Sources

This guide draws on the following primary sources, current as of 22 September 2026:

• legislation.gov.uk, “Environmental Protection Act 1990, section 52: Payments in respect of recycling etc.”

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