Removing invasive weeds and contaminated soil for disposal off-site

What you must do

You should remove contaminated soil from your land or premises for disposal, unless you have reached an alternative agreement with your environmental regulator.

When you transport invasive weeds and soil contaminated with invasive weeds, make sure that the vehicle is covered or sheeted so that seeds and plant material can not blow away. If you allow contaminated soil or plant material to escape, you could be seen as encouraging invasive weeds to grow.

You must have waste transfer notes for any material leaving your site.

You must list any material that contains invasive weeds or their seeds on the waste transfer notes. The presence of invasive weeds will affect where your waste haulier can take the waste material.

Contaminated soil and weeds are likely to be classed as non-hazardous waste. Note that non-hazardous is a different category from inert.

The duty of care affects all businesses. You must make sure that:

  • your waste is stored, handled, recycled or disposed of safely and legally
  • your waste is stored, handled, recycled or disposed of by licensed individuals or businesses
  • you record all transfers of waste between your business and another business, using a waste transfer note (WTN)
  • you keep all WTNs, signed by both businesses, for at least two years
  • you record any transfer of hazardous/special waste between your business and another business, using a consignment note
  • you keep all consignment notes, signed by both businesses, for at least three years.
As Japanese knotweed and giant hogweed are considered to be pollutants, you may be able to apply for a ‘landfill tax exemption’ from HM Revenue and Customs for contaminated soil.

Good practice

If you remove waste plant material or contaminated soil from your site, you must take it to a site that has either:

  • an environmental permit (England and Wales)
  • a waste management licence (Northern Ireland and Scotland)
  • a pollution prevention and control (PPC) permit (Northern Ireland and Scotland).

The conditions of the environmental permit, waste management licence or PPC permit must allow the disposal of invasive weeds at that site. Check with the disposal site in advance that they can receive material containing invasive weeds.

The disposal site may need notice so that an area can be prepared away from the landfill liner for material containing invasive weeds.

In this guideline: