Ask the venue about each stream and write down the answer. A refusal is an answered question, not a collection you can use. A stream stays unresolved until the route status is confirmed, with evidence that the collector accepts that stream, a responsible person, and a carrier-check reference for a confirmed registration result. That reference is not a waste transfer note. Venue acceptance, an estimate, or a transfer note does not make an unconfirmed route ready. Give every collection an identity, a date and a coverage note so the same load is not added twice.

This plan is for one event at a hired venue. It is not a council safety plan, not a price comparison, and not the seven-day workplace log. Compare offers on the quote sheet. Check what a bin may take on the contamination page. Food quantities stay on the food log.

Before waste leaves the venue, use the duty-of-care steps in the waste-reduction guide. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland use their own carrier rules. Those rules are not restated here.

Record the stream before the collection

For each stream, write the zone, the stream name and the container. Then record what the venue said: yes, no, or not stated.

A yes or a no is the venue’s answer. It becomes a usable route only when you also have all of the following:

  • the evidence you are relying on, naming the collector’s acceptance of that stream on that route
  • the role responsible for that route
  • the route itself, named specifically enough that someone else could follow it, with the route status set to confirmed
  • a carrier result of confirmed, with the carrier-check reference you copied

The carrier-check reference is the registration result. It is not a waste transfer note. Keep the transfer-note reference in its own cell, and only when you hold that note. A confirmed carrier result does not make the stream ready while the route status is still unresolved. An estimate, or a transfer note on a collection row, does not upgrade an unconfirmed stream.

not_checked means you have not looked. failed means the check did not confirm registration. Neither result makes the stream ready. If the venue refused the stream, or never answered, the stream stays unresolved unless a specific alternative route is confirmed in the same way. “We will find somewhere” is not that route.

In England, packaging labelled compostable or biodegradable is not recycled with food waste. Defra’s workplace guidance, last updated 3 October 2025, says to treat it as non-recyclable waste or arrange a dedicated collection. An ordinary food-waste bin is not that route. Caddy liners are a separate exception and are not a packaging route on this plan. The packaging guide keeps the same limitation.

Record a collection only when you have one

After the event, add a row for each quantity you actually hold. Give it an identity, the date, and the coverage, such as one hall lift for that morning. If the same identity appears twice, do not add both quantities. The spreadsheet does not add them.

A named direct measurement is a weighbridge result, or another measurement you name in the measurement cell, such as a named scale. An estimate may contain a number, and it stays an estimate. A quantity you do not have stays blank. Do not type zero for a blank. Estimates and missing quantities stay on different rows.

You type the status. Use ready only for a stream that meets the route rule above. Use unresolved when the route is not confirmed. Use estimate for an estimated collection and missing when the quantity is blank. The file does not check the row for you.

Fill in the plan

Download both files. Save a copy of the blank file and type into that copy.

There is no third instructions file. The files are plain CSV. They contain no formula.

Worked example: fictional answers

The example is Northgate Studio’s fictional morning. Fictional Haul is not a real collector. SIMULATED-NOT-A-LIVE-REGISTER-RESULT was not returned by a live register. SIMULATED-NOT-A-LIVE-TRANSFER-NOTE is not a real waste transfer note. The two references are different documents.

Stream or collection What is known Status
Food The venue has not said yes or no. Unresolved.
Glass The venue refused glass. No alternative route is named. Unresolved. The refusal is the answer.
Compostable packaging The venue pointed at the ordinary food-waste bin. Unresolved. That bin is not a packaging route in England.
Residual The venue said yes. The carrier was not checked. Unresolved. Venue acceptance is not a carrier result.
Paper The venue said yes. The carrier result is failed. Unresolved.
Card The carrier result is confirmed and the simulated register reference is filled. The route status is still unresolved. Unresolved. Registration does not confirm the route.
Dry recycling Fictional Haul's acceptance of that route, a responsible role, route status confirmed, and a simulated carrier-check reference. The transfer-note cell is empty. Ready, as a fictional planning row. The register reference is simulated.
Residual collection 40 kg, marked estimate, with its own identity, date and coverage, and a simulated transfer note. Estimate. The note does not make the residual stream ready.
Food collection The quantity cell is blank. Missing. Not zero.

No diversion percentage is worked out from these rows.

Limits

The plan does not choose the cheapest collector, decide the contents of a bin, or say how much a workplace throws away in seven days. A public recycling claim still goes through the green claims guide.

Sources