Making Simpler Recycling work across Hampshire by closing the compliance gap

More than 900 Hampshire County Council (HCC) sites, many individually managed, needed to adopt Simpler Recycling by 01 April 2025. While main sectors like the Fire Service, Cultural Trust and Constabulary were coordinated centrally, most sites, particularly schools, operated independently and required one-on-one communication to achieve compliance.

But our challenge wasn’t just scale, but complexity. Apart from giving these sites advice on the new legislation, we also needed to answer any questions they may have and provide recommendations. We also needed to set up the services they required before the reform deadline. And with 707 of these sites initially non-compliant, we needed a robust system to track progress, respond to questions and drive engagement… fast.

We created a comprehensive tracker listing all sites, contacts and service status. This allowed immediate identification of non-compliant sites. The tracker became our daily compass that enabled us to monitor which sites were compliant, who we’d contacted and what next steps were needed.

As the deadline approached, we decided to prioritise sites that relied on us for core services. Sites that only required clinical services might be sourcing food or glass from other providers.

To reach the many schools without central coordination, we contacted each individually using website-sourced email addresses. We were able to contact all schools by end of December 2024. When responses were slow, we escalated by having the HCC step in with internal communications across schools and other outstanding sites.

We also took our message in person, attending the Hampshire Headteachers’ Exhibitions in March 2025 to answer questions and drive action. By 10 March 2025, we were sending daily updates to the HCC team, who continued reinforcing our outreach through weekly internal messaging and direct contact.

Initial challenges, such as schools not recognising the legitimacy of our emails or missing email communications entirely, were overcome by HCC’s internal messaging support. From having 707 non-compliant core-service sites in December 2024, we saw remarkable progress by April 2025 when an additional 640 sites became compliant, leaving only 67 outstanding sites. That’s 92% compliance across Hampshire sites with core SUEZ services achieved in just 17 weeks.

The project, currently ongoing, reinforced the values of close collaboration, shared responsibility, central tracking and timely communication. It also revealed the gaps, such as schools outside HCC’s direct communication lines, that we will address more in the future. From this experience, real-time insight is not just helpful, but an essential component in compliance issues.